Newport Bans Skateboarding on Boardwalk : Ordinance: The City Council approves the law in an effort to cut down on accidents along Ocean Front sidewalk, to the dismay of the sport’s enthusiasts.

Despite protests from skateboarders, the City Council on Monday banned the sport entirely from the city’s boardwalk to avoid more collisions--and more lawsuits.

“We are trying to make it possible to accommodate an impossible situation on that sidewalk,” Councilwoman Ruthelyn Plummer said. “I’m sorry, but the skateboards are just one more burden on the sidewalk.”

The City Council voted 6 to 1 to ban the controversial boards on the 12-foot-wide Ocean Front path that separates homes from sand between 33rd and E streets. Councilman John W. Hedges voted against the ban.

Council members cited the self-insured city’s liability for accidents on the strand, where hordes of pedestrians, bicyclists and skaters compete for space on weekends and in the summer. But skateboard enthusiasts and other boardwalk users called the new ordinance discriminatory and expressed fear about future bans of recreational devices.

“Skateboarding has always been sought out as a crime, but it’s not. It’s a personal expression,” said E. G. Sratantaro, a 23-year-old resident who rode his skateboard to the meeting along the boardwalk. “If you outlaw skateboarding, that’s a crime in itself.”

Skateboarder Bill Carney told the council: “The real issue is the boardwalk itself; it’s obsolete, it’s overcrowded. There’s just too many people that enjoy it and want to use it. To single out one group of people is an injustice. I think we just have to be more tolerant of each other.”

But to the dismay of the protesters, Plummer said that, frankly, “we would like to ban the skateboards from the whole city.”

A half dozen residents, including a local business owner and a woman who bicycles along the boardwalk, spoke at the meeting before Mayor Phil Sansone cut short public comments. Skateboarders in the crowd erupted in cries of, “No fair,” and “You don’t understand!” and stormed out of the meeting after the vote.

In tough economic times, council members said, the city simply cannot risk expensive lawsuits from the busy boardwalk. Last year, a jury ordered Newport Beach to pay $277,000 to a pedestrian who was struck by a bicyclist on the oceanfront sidewalk, and another suit is currently pending in which a roller skater fell when a dog jumped in her path. A third suit involving a bicycle accident in a different part of the city reportedly may involve a multimillion-dollar settlement.

“It’s an expensive lesson,” City Atty. Robert Burnham said in an interview last week.

The ban, which was proposed this summer by retiring Councilwoman Plummer, is the latest in a series of restrictions skateboarders face.

Newport Beach already prohibits skateboards in busy commercial districts such as the Balboa Island Fun Zone, on and around the city’s two piers, and in McFadden Square. In Laguna Beach, skateboarding is illegal on all sidewalks, and Laguna Niguel restricts skateboarding from all streets except short cul-de-sacs. In Huntington Beach, skateboarders found in business districts or creating a nuisance anywhere in the city are subject to arrest.

Newport Beach’s skateboard ban is an about-face for the council, which last year rejected a similar measure and instead imposed an 8 m.p.h. speed limit on all vehicles cruising the oceanfront sidewalk.

The ordinance proposed last year would have prohibited all wheeled vehicles from the busy boardwalk. Council members chose to start with skateboards, they said, because those have no brakes, can fly out of control when skaters fall, and cause property damage when wheels hit concrete during fancy tricks.

“To walk on the oceanfront at this time is impossible because wheels come after you from all sides,” said a man who asked not to be identified. “It’s a nasty situation. If you want to ban something, my suggestion is to ban pedestrians.”