Beach Curfew Gets Preliminary OK : Restriction: Newport council says the 10 p.m. deadline is needed to conform to limits in neighboring cities.

With little public outcry, the City Council on Monday unanimously gave preliminary approval to a 10 p.m. beach curfew.

“We have no choice,” Councilwoman Jean H. Watt said. “It doesn’t appeal to me to close the beach that early, but with all the problems we are having and the problems that our next-door neighbors have, we have no choice. We don’t want to be the beach that stays open the latest.”

Since the state announced in March that a 10 p.m. curfew would go into effect at Huntington State Beach and Bolsa Chica State Beach, neighboring cities have raced to do the same to discourage troublemakers from migrating to their beaches.

Newport Beach will take a final vote on the proposed new curfew in two weeks.

But Councilwoman Evelyn R. Hart expressed reservations.

If she and her neighbors have a beach party, they are “not always out of there by 10 o’clock,” Hart said at the council’s study session Monday afternoon. She asked the city staff to research “a better way to handle” the problem before the next council meeting.

Peter Beck 35, of the Balboa Peninsula said he too would miss the beach at night. Beck, the only person to address the council, said: “Sometimes late at night I like to walk down to the beach a few blocks away and sit out and look onto the sea.”

About a year ago, he said, police surprised him by shining a flashlight in his face and asking him to leave.

“Who am I disturbing, annoying or endangering?” he asked.

But council members said they worried that people would flock to Newport Beach if other beaches closed at 10 p.m.

Except for the state-run beach in Corona del Mar, which already closes at 10 p.m., Newport’s beaches currently close at 11 p.m. The Newport and Balboa piers will remain open 24 hours despite the curfew.

The city of Huntington Beach began enforcing a 10 p.m. curfew on its 3 1/2-mile stretch of sand earlier this month to conform with closing time on the two state beaches to the north and south.

Officials in Seal Beach will consider a similar curfew.

Laguna Beach is one of the few cities with beaches open 24 hours, except for people under 18. The curfew there is 10 p.m. for 13- and 14-year-olds and midnight for 15, 16 and 17 years old.

Laguna Beach officials are not considering establishing a curfew for adults, City Councilman Wayne L. Peterson said.

In Newport Beach, officers on foot patrol and on bicycles will order people off the sand at 10 p.m. if the new curfew passes. Anyone violating the curfew will be verbally warned or given a citation when appropriate, Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said.

Newport Beach officials say their problems are caused by gangs who come to the city from throughout the Southland to cause trouble and leave graffiti.

“We have this gang problem. It doesn’t happen every day or every night, but it is there,” Watt said. The beach “already uses up much of our police force,” she said. “We can’t afford to put more (officers) down there to deal with the problems.”

Mike Pisani, deputy director of general services for Newport Beach, said that over the last few years the city has been removing an increasing amount of graffiti at the beaches.

The vandals especially target the bathrooms and “For Rent” signs on beachfront properties, he said.

Times staff writer Jodi Wilgoren contributed to this story.