NEWPORT BEACH : Decision Delayed on New Taco Bell Site

The Planning Commission, short two members at ist meeting this week, postponed a vote on a plan to build a Taco Bell across Coast Highway from the Balboa Bay Club.

Commission members Thursday night told company officials to meet with neighbors to work out potential problems, such as noise.

Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp. wants to raze a vacant restaurant at 1400 W. Coast Highway and open a dine-in, take-out and 24-hour drive-through restaurant.

Residents are concerned about anticipated noise and security problems caused by all-night customers.

“The noise level has nothing to do with the (drive-through) speaker board, it has to do with the people that will show up there and the types of vehicles,” said Snug Harbor Road resident Bill Dunlap, who was worried about noise from motorcycles and cars blaring loud music.

“If you’ve got seven gang members . . . who want tacos, do you think the 18-year-old (in line) is going to get out of his car and go tell them to turn it down?” he asked the panel.

Barbara Yeager, whose home is on Kings Road on the bluff directly over the site, repeated some of Dunlap’s sentiments but said she wanted good corporate neighbors to take over the former site of the Grinder, Guido’s and Melee’s.

“I would like to look at a different rooftop than the dilapidated one on a building that has been vacant for most of the last five years,” she told the commission.

The commission voted to hold another public hearing on the project Oct. 6.

Commissioners Norma Glover, Thomas Edwards and Tod Ridgeway all said they were inclined to at least limit hours of operation to opening at 6 a.m. and closing at 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, as a senior planner recommended.

Commissioners Gary DiSano and Gary Pomeroy said they would support the project as proposed.

“There are residents who don’t want this type of project at all, but that’s not how we decide these things,” Pomeroy said. “This is permitted use.”