NEWPORT BEACH : City to Gain Wider Road, Car-Pooling

The city has been given permission to relocate 34 parking spaces in front of City Hall in exchange for starting a car-pooling program for city employees.

The spaces will be shifted to nearby Villa Way and the employee parking lot behind City Hall. The relocation is part of a road-widening project scheduled for this summer, during which another northbound lane will be added to Newport Boulevard from 32nd Street to Via Lido and across the channel bridge.

The new city program will allow employees to car-pool using city vehicles, Public Works Director Benjamin Nolan said. “We’ll be ready to put (car-pooling) into place concurrently with construction of the Newport Boulevard project,” he added.

The program is expected to reduce the city’s parking needs by 12 spaces, Nolan said.

Originally, the city planned to move the parking places closer to City Hall to make way for the widening, which would have meant losing a slice of landscape in front of the building. However, some City Council members asked that another plan be created that would preserve the greenery.

The state Coastal Commission this week approved the relocation of the parking spaces and the retention of the landscaping.

Newport officials are also considering the possibility of building a parking structure to meet the city’s long-term needs, Nolan said. Such a project could involve adding double-deck parking to the existing lot behind City Hall or a cooperative project with the Pavillions market next door, he said.