New Life for Old Balboa? : City Vows to Revitalize Its ‘Tired’ Peninsula

The Balboa Peninsula is having an identity crisis.

It has beaches--miles of sand, in fact. But no one describes it strictly as a beach community. There are some boutiques, but it’s hardly a shoppers magnet like tony Fashion Island.

Instead, Balboa Peninsula is a hodgepodge of picturesque beachfront homes and apartments let out for weeklong beer bashes, nautically themed tourist traps and posh shops lacking for crowds, an area that has spent years earning its dubious distinction as the place to party.

And now city officials say it’s time for something new.

Newport Beach Councilman John W. Hedges, who represents the area, said previous efforts to clean up the peninsula attacked problems piecemeal and rarely resulted in lasting change. As he bluntly puts it: “It was like putting lipstick on a pig.”

This time, city officials promise to take a comprehensive approach to cleaning up the famous drinking spot that accounts for more than half of the city’s alcohol-related arrests.

And it’s not just the bars that are bothering some people. The peninsula’s roughly 13,000 residents and business owners complain that the preponderance of T-shirt shops and fast-food joints have also contributed to the general decline of the Balboa Peninsula.

As the city embarks on the most ambitious revitalization project in its history--the remaking of the Balboa Peninsula--city officials and many residents agree that even though it will take years and millions of dollars, they can no longer afford to ignore the downward spiral of the oldest portion of Newport Beach.

“For a long time now the Balboa Peninsula has been tired,” said City Manager Kevin J. Murphy. “Something has to be done now.”

Drawn up mostly by citizens over the past 18 months, the proposal promising sweeping changes comes before the Newport Beach City Council for debate Monday night. Among the ideas for the 3-mile-long stretch of sand that separates Newport Harbor from the Pacific Ocean:

* Creating visitors’ moorings in Newport Harbor so yachtsmen can park their boats and shop and eat on the peninsula.

* Cracking down on renting homes for a week or weekend--a popular practice that leads to parties that end only when the alcohol runs out.

* Using bed-and-breakfasts to attract out-of-towners.

* Shuttling visitors around on water and land trolleys.

* Adding a monument or fountain to make the entrance to the peninsula at Newport and Balboa boulevards more attractive and easier to navigate.

* Landscaping main streets with trees and plants and burying unsightly power lines.

* Expanding parking.

“I personally believe the city has to think big and think creatively,” said former mayor Clarence Turner. “They have to start taking some risks because things are not the same as they used to be 25 years ago.”

Years ago, people from all over the county would trek to the Balboa Peninsula for an evening out.

Today, in spite of the numerous restaurants and proximity to the beach, the number of visitors has dropped. And while the bars do plenty of business, the commercial areas continue to struggle.

“It definitely should be promoted more,” said Irma Wolfson, manager of the Lido Book Shoppe, one of the few stores that has weathered the recession.

Crowds can get heavy during summer or when a good movie is playing at the Lido Theater. But more often than not, it is quiet on the quaint brick-lined shopping street that boasts some of the town’s best views of Newport Harbor.

Up and down the peninsula on a recent Friday evening, parking lots at all the major commercial areas--Lido Village, Cannery Village, McFadden Square and Balboa Village--were hardly full.

Pedestrians there had little competition for space on the sidewalks. With the exception of several bars, businesses saw few visitors.

“I would like to see just one nice clothing store and maybe an art gallery or a coffeehouse,” said Balboa Village resident Ron Baers.

Balboa Village is just one example of how hard change has hit the peninsula. Once, the village boasted a small department store and an elegant movie theater that showed art films. Those spots have been replaced by several T-shirt shops and pizza parlors, making it a less attractive place for Baers and others to live.

“A lot of us would love to walk to the village, but there is no hardware store, no supermarket,” he said.

Not everyone, however, is happy with the idea of bringing change to the peninsula. And no one is more concerned than the mobile home residents at Marina Park.

The mobile home park has been located on the city-owned property since 1956 and its lease is up in 2000. The revitalization proposal calls for displacing residents and building a hotel or a sailing center there when the homes are gone.

“It’s lovely here and I would hate to move,” said Ethel Williams, 70, a 38-year resident of the bay-front mobile home park.

Jean Van Ornum, who lives on beachfront property across the road from Marina Park, also opposes many parts of the plan because she likes the peninsula the way it is.

“They are talking about building a big hotel, but we certainly don’t need to build Miami Beach here,” said Van Ornum, 76.

The ambitious scope of the plan may also be its downfall, some say, because although the city has not put dollar amounts on any of the proposed changes, it is certain to carry a high price tag, and one that the city may not be eager to pay.

“It is something we are not going to jump rashly into,” conceded Mayor Janice A. Debay. “It’s my hope that the better suggestions can be implemented, but we don’t have a lot of money to throw at it.”