Too Close for Comfort

NEWPORT BEACH — When he moved to Margaret Drive four years ago, Jeff Chandler thought only of the benefits of living steps from a school.

His two young children could walk to the campus--Newport Harbor High School--when they were old enough to enroll. In the meantime, they could enjoy the school’s athletic fields and yards.

What Chandler didn’t anticipate was that living near the school would also mean enduring bottle-necked traffic from students and people constantly parking in front of his house.

“You would not believe the things we put up with,” Chandler, 38, said. “People trample our gardens, pee on our lawns, block our driveways with their cars. I have had students out smoking on my lawn.”

In Newport Beach, and across Orange County, people who live near schools have complained about students clogging neighborhood streets and other unruly behavior. But in this case, the residents are getting some unexpected help from the source of their frustration--the students themselves.

Harbor High senior Phil Baltazar, the student body president, is leading a student team to find solutions to a traffic problem he said is expected to become even worse. By the end of next year, there will be nearly twice as many students--about 2,100--as five years ago.

“We’re looking to the future,” Baltazar said, “because that’s when the problem is going to be a lot worse.”

The students have come up with a number of recommendations for city officials, including designating a spot where parents can safely drop off and pick up their children. Parents now double-park along Irvine Avenue and 15th Street, contributing to congestion.

Creating a drop-off spot may also reduce the number of injuries around the school that have occurred because, according to Baltazar, parents are so busy looking for their kids, they don’t see the ones crossing the street in front of them. Already this year, six students have been hit by cars on streets around the high school, suffering minor scratches and bruises, according to students and administrators.

Another recommendation, one that some describe as “very elementary school,” would place a crossing guard at Irvine Avenue and 15th Street. Students also will ask the city to consider creating diagonal parking spaces on one side of 15th Street, and they are drawing up a carpool program.

This is not the first time traffic problems in the neighborhoods around the high school have prompted action. The Cliff Haven and Newport Heights streets near the campus have long made tempting stopping points for students who are running late and don’t want to walk from campus lots farther away.

Years ago, the city established two-hour parking restrictions on surrounding streets, but residents say the measure hasn’t helped much.

Errol Davidson, 51, who has lived less than a block from Newport Harbor High since 1990, said he favored the time limits because students were in the habit of blocking driveways and leaving garbage on the street.

But Davidson said students just learned to leave campus every two hours to move their cars. “The only people getting tickets were the ones who lived here,” he said. “The kids had it all figured out about how to avoid tickets.”

Residents say the two-hour restriction also is ineffective because it’s lifted at 6 p.m. and on weekends, times when there are sports events and club functions at the school. Newport Harbor High is used more than most local campuses, with its large stadium, theater and gymnasium, which are used by schools throughout the district and county.

Diane Bailey, 57, and a 22-year resident of Margaret Drive, said that Saturdays and evenings have become the most difficult times for her to park.

“We’re the closest street to the gymnasium and the fields, so people park here when they are going there,” she said.

On a recent Saturday, the morning of his daughter’s birthday party, Chandler said he awoke to find cars parked along every inch of curb on his street. “There was no place for our guests to park,” he said.

City officials expect to consider the recommendations from the students in January. They also are considering extending the two-hour parking restriction to evenings and weekends.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NEIGHBORHOODS / Newport Heights and Cliff Haven

Bounded by: 16th Street on the north, Newport Harbor High School and St. Andrews Road on the east, Tustin Avenue on the west and Haven Place and 15th Street on the south

Population: About 1,500 in Newport Heights and 1,000 in Cliff Haven

Hot topic: Parking and traffic problems around Newport Harbor High School