NEWPORT BEACH : College Compromise Offered on Campus

Officials of Coastline Community College, which has been in a bitter battle with residents over a proposal to convert an elementary school into a satellite site for the college, offered a compromise Thursday in an effort to address the concerns of neighbors.

The college’s new plan includes closing the campus at 6 p.m. rather than 9:30; promising to use part of the site for child care; eliminating additional lighting on the site, and limiting parking to established lots.

The proposal by Coast Community College District Trustee Walter G. Howald was offered in response to many concerns raised by residents in recent months since the college made the proposal.

Neighbors in the Eastbluff community above Upper Newport Bay have opposed the Coastline plan on the ground that it would increase traffic and noise late into the evening. They suggested that the site be used instead for a child and infant care facility.

Until Thursday, the college had adamantly refused to deviate from its plan, which they described as the best proposal for the college’s success. They argued that Coastline students who attend evening classes are mostly adults and unlikely to cause the sort of commotion that residents feared.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District had been caught in the middle of the battle because it badly needs the money that would be generated from leasing the Eastbluff Kindergarten Center site, but it also wants to please more than 1,000 neighbors in the area.

“I feel we are getting closer to a win-win situation that will benefit everyone involved,” Newport-Mesa trustee Sherry Loofbourrow said. Her district includes the Eastbluff site, and she was involved in talks with Howald to help reach the compromise.

Last week, Newport-Mesa officials received applications from three child-care providers who proposed leasing the site for about $100,000 annually, which is the price tag on the discussed lease agreement with the college district.

The Newport-Mesa school board will again review all of the proposals at its July 14 meeting.