NEWPORT BEACH : Price to Be Set on Bay-Side Properties

The Newport Conservancy and the Irvine Co. agreed this week to negotiate a purchase price for two bay-side properties, Castaways and Newporter North, by Nov. 1.

The conservancy’s proposed purchase of the prime sites is an effort to save them from development and stems from negotiations between the city and the Irvine Co. for building in the city.

The company has offered to advance $21 million to the city for street improvements in exchange for guarantees that it can build 950 homes and 125,000 square feet of offices and commercial buildings on parts of the 11 undeveloped properties it has left in the city.

The Irvine Co. offered to keep 150 of the total 246 acres undeveloped for open space and parkland use. But environmentalists say Castaways and Newporter North, where the Irvine Co. hopes to build 360 townhomes, should also be left undeveloped because the land is home to valuable wildlife, including coyotes, smaller animals and rare birds.

A number of residents thus formed the conservancy in hopes of raising $80 million to buy the two properties from the Irvine Co. and preserve them as open space, separate from the city’s negotiations for a development agreement with the firm. The Irvine Co. has been supportive of the conservancy’s efforts and even provided seed money.

The agreement signed Monday further demonstrates that the company considers the conservancy a serious customer.

“We need the Irvine Co.’s help, and the only way we can get it is to work together,” said Councilwoman Jean H. Watt, who started the conservancy.

Another set of land appraisals will be conducted to determine how much the land would be worth if the company spread the homes across the two sites, as allowed in the city’s General Plan, and if it placed the homes closer together, leaving more open space, as proposed in the development agreement.

Appraisals done for the city of Newport Beach set the land value at $36 million to $44 million for the Castaways site and $44 million to $54 million on the Newporter North site.

The Irvine Co. will sell the property for the lower of the two appraisals as long as the development agreement is approved by the city and state, said Tom Redwitz, Irvine Co. vice chairman of land development.

In the meantime, the conservancy will seek voter approval of a citywide assessment district, in which each household would pay a small annual fee to help fund the land purchase. The conservancy hopes to keep the price per household down to about $5 per month, or “the cost of a hamburger, Coke and fries,” Watt said.

The assessment district may fund only part of the total purchase price, Watt said. “We’ll get it so it’s a very nominal amount per household and augment it with private donations,” she said.

Creation of an assessment district requires 51% voter approval. The conservancy will ask the council to place the measure on the ballot, but will seek a citizens’ initiative if the council refuses, Watt said. The conservancy has already asked the council to permit City Manager Kevin J. Murphy and City Atty. Robert Burnham to help draft the language.