NEWPORT BEACH : Council Expected to OK Newporter North

The City Council is expected to approve an Irvine Co. plan to build a 173-home gated community between Jamboree Road and the Back Bay after a public hearing tonight. But environmental concerns must be resolved with state and federal agencies before the development can proceed.

The Irvine Co. may be required to preserve coastal sage scrub that is a habitat for the California gnatcatcher, a bird that is on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department’s list of species threatened with extinction.

In a recent environmental survey, four nesting pairs and two solo male gnatcatchers were discovered, advance planner Patricia Temple said. That has caught the eye of federal officials, who want to make sure the birds are protected.

As planned, the Newporter North development’s northern boundary is San Joaquin Hills Road and the southern boundary is next to the Newporter Resort.

Homes would be on the top of the bluff, with a wilderness park in John Wayne Gulch below. The plans include a 12-foot-wide public bicycle trail on the bluff top around the homes and a pedestrian trail in the gulch.

But federal regulations preempt city authority. Wildlife officials could require the developer to leave untouched some land designated for the bicycle and pedestrian trails.

The Planning Commission voted in December to approve the project and let the developer resolve those issues later, but some feared that if the bicycle trail isn’t built before people move into the new homes, buyers could mount a legal challenge to building it at all.

That would eliminate a planned link to the citywide network of bicycle trails.

Federal officials could also require that the gulch, proposed as a wilderness park area, be preserved without trails to keep people from disrupting it.