Newport Seeks to Skate By With Oceanfront Compromise

Reacting to safety concerns on the Balboa Peninsula’s increasingly crowded oceanfront sidewalk, the City Council on Monday will consider an ordinance that would restrict the speed and traffic flow of thousands of cyclists and skaters who flock to its straight-and-narrow concrete path.

The proposed ordinance is considerably scaled down from one suggested in September that called for a complete ban on all wheeled transit on the walk over weekends, holidays and the summer months. That proposal drew an angry response from hundreds of cycling and skating enthusiasts from Balboa to Riverside, whose letters and phone calls continue to trickle into City Hall.

The new proposal, which would impose a maximum speed of 8 m.p.h. along the strip from E Street to 36th Street and eliminate the current bicycles-only lane on the two-lane route, has been called an acceptable compromise by city officials responding to safety concerns, cycling enthusiasts and oceanfront business owners who fear that an outright ban would spell doom.

But critics say it is a smoke screen that hides necessary--and costly--long-term changes.

Rob Patterson, a member of the city’s Bicycle Trails Advisory Committee and an avid cyclist on the strip, said: “My personal fear is that the short-term measures will be somewhat successful and come off as a pseudo-fix, and the city won’t deal with the bigger issues . . . and we will have missed another opportunity to really improve the boardwalk.”

The new proposed ordinance is broken down into several components, including the 8-m.p.h. speed limit and a prohibition against “unsafe or reckless activity,” such as skateboard tricks and inappropriate lane changes.

A third part of the ordinance would change the current two-lane road division. Instead of the current division of an ocean side bicycles-only lane and an inland lane for all other traffic, the strip would operate like a traditional road, with all southbound users traveling on the ocean side and all northbound users on the inland side. There would also be new pedestrian-only zones in McFadden Plaza at the Newport Pier.

The city would also put up new direction and speed signs, and paint the new information on the ground along the 2 1/2-mile route from E to 36th streets on the ocean side of the peninsula. The city would also develop an education campaign about the changes.

If approved, police officers will enforce the ordinance with citations carrying fines of up to $50 for those who break the speed limit or ride on the wrong side of the route. Cyclists or skaters who engage in reckless behavior could be charged with a misdemeanor and fined up to $500. Police would also be allowed to use radar to detect speeders, copying a Huntington Beach code approved by its City Council in October.

The ordinance, proposed by an ad hoc committee, was devised after protesters jammed a September council meeting, carrying signs reading “Yes on Bikes on the Boardwalk” and arguing that a year-round ban would increase vehicular traffic on the peninsula and deprive merchants of badly needed year-round revenue.

Thus far, the ordinance has met with acceptance--albeit grudgingly, in some cases--from local residents, businesses and cyclists.

The ordinance “doesn’t contain some of the things I wanted it to contain, but I support the recommendations,” said Bambi Wiltchik, who represents the Balboa Peninsula Point Homeowners Assn.

“We think the proposal is a workable solution,” added Dave Cooper of the International In-line Skaters Assn.

While the issue of safety on the narrow strip has cropped up in the city for years, it boiled over earlier this year when the city was ordered to pay $270,000 in damages to the victim of a pedestrian-bicycle collision. An Orange County Superior Court jury said the strip’s two 6-foot lanes are too small for safety when crowded.

Indeed, a 1986 city study of the strip stated that it is used more than almost any route in the Southland. Up to 75% of the users are bicyclists, followed in volume by pedestrians, skateboard riders and roller skaters.

“Typical inland bicycle trail volumes in Orange and Los Angeles counties do not exceed 500 riders per day. The Ocean Front has more than that in one hour,” the city study says.

About 65% of the users are Newport Beach residents, including children who use the strip to ride or walk to and from area schools. Some residents opposed the earlier pedestrians-only proposal because they and their children use the strip as a transportation route.

The threat of future costly lawsuits prompted city officials to study long-term improvements for the route, such as widening it and separating lanes for different uses. But, officials said, the short-term solution was needed until that plan, estimated to cost the city $1.5 million, is completed next year.

But critics argued that the short-term changes amount to little change at all. They say people don’t follow the rules now, and there’s no assurance that they’ll follow the new ones.

Patterson of the city’s Bicycle Trails Advisory Committee said bicyclists are concerned that the new ordinance will stall more long-term and costly changes, such as widening the walk or extending it to the Santa Ana River--moves that they say would make the route more accessible to all.

“There’s only 12 feet of pavement there,” he said, “and you’re serving skaters who need 12 feet just to go side-to-side, you’re serving pedestrians, people with dogs, people on bikes. . . . On a busy day it becomes a dangerous place, even with the speed limit. I think the speed limit will help (avoid) lawsuits, (but) I think there’s a difference between lawsuits and the real safety feature.”

But the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce supports the new ordinance. Many of the shops along the oceanfront depend on business from everyone using the strip, including skaters and cyclists.

Bob Rothman, owner of the Stuft Surfer Cafe at 15th Street, was outraged when he heard of the city’s initial plan.

“I had assumed I would close down for the winter,” said Rothman. “During the winter, the weekends keep me alive, and the people who come down on the weekend are the bikers. There’s three bike racks down here, and on Saturdays they’re all full. Without the bikes, it would really be quiet.”

While the short-term solutions are likely to please those hundreds of users angered at the initial plan for a pedestrian-only walkway, some say homeowners and others will still seek a full long-term ban.

But a ban is now unlikely, city officials say, as an enlarged strip with increased safety features is now seen as the eventual long-term solution.

“I think that the recommendations we came up with are good ones, workable ones and ones the users will be happy with,” said Councilman John W. Hedges, whose district includes the route and who headed the ad-hoc committee that drafted the ordinance.

“We decided that an outright ban was premature and penalized the users,” he said. “We’re looking toward making what we have work.”