Suit Attacks Newport Coast Building Plan
A coalition of Orange County environmental groups has filed a lawsuit challenging a plan by the California Coastal Commission to move future development in the Newport Coast area closer to the ocean.
“We are very upset about it,” said Fern Pirkle, president of Friends of the Irvine Coast, one of the groups involved. “We believe that it is destructive of many of the values that are supposed to be protected by the Coastal Commission.”
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco by Pirkle’s group along with Laguna Greenbelt and Stop Polluting Our Newport, accuses the commission of violating the California Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act by tentatively agreeing to shift future development from inland areas near Newport Coast Drive to a scenic coastal area between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.
According to Pirkle’s group, residential density could be twice what it is now in some coastal areas if the plan is implemented. The plan also would add about 100,000 square feet of commercial retail space to the scenic area along the coastal hills, Pirkle said.
“It does not protect the open spaces and would interfere with wildlife and the environment,” she said.
The Coastal Commission is expected to vote on the plan next week.
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