NEWPORT BEACH : Effort Made to Prevent Dover Drive Widening

A move to permanently prevent widening of Dover Drive goes before the City Council today.

Councilwoman Norma Glover asked city planners to undertake the effort, which requires removing a section of Dover from the county’s Master Plan of Arterial Highways. The affected section of Dover runs from its inception at West Coast Highway to Westcliff Drive.

To do that, city officials will have to go through a list of steps or risk jeopardizing some of the $600,000 a year the city receives in Measure M funds for road construction and maintenance. Measure M was a sales tax increase to fund transportation projects.

The necessary steps to remove the street from the master plan include individual city and county sessions with the community; determination of methodologies for technical analysis of the plan and a series of hearings by the city’s Transportation Committee, Planning Commission and City Council.

That process is expected to take six months.

The city must then submit a redrafted map to the county along with proof of compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. City officials would take the entire package to the county and request the change in the broader plan.

In requesting the change, Glover said she wanted to insulate the neighborhoods bordering Dover Drive, including Santa Ana Heights and the planned Castaways community, from increased traffic between Coast Highway and Costa Mesa.