NEWPORT BEACH : Council to Scrutinize Nail Salon Parking

The City Council will examine the merits of a plan to make new fingernail salons provide nearly three times as much parking as existing ones, even though the Planning Commission voted the ordinance down.

Parking problems at a nail salon in Corona del Mar prompted then-City Councilman Phil Sansone to request the change last year. But Planning Director James Hewicker told the council this week that the Planning Commission nixed the change because that business is gone and only one other is causing a problem.

Councilwoman Jean H. Watt said Sansone “usually had good reasons” for raising issues, so she wants to hear more from the community before letting the ordinance die.

Mayor John W. Hedges won council support Monday for a public hearing on the matter March 27. A citywide moratorium on new personal service businesses with five or more work stations, imposed last April 25, is nearing its end and planners will need to address parking and other problems so the city can begin issuing permits again, he said.

The rule would make new nail salons provide one parking space for every 80 square feet of salon area, up from one space per 240 square feet as now required.