Newport Beach reviews potential capital improvement projects for 2021-22
The Newport Beach City Council this week got a preview of the projects that could come through the pipeline when they set next fiscal year’s budget.
During a study session held Tuesday, city staff presented a short list of projects that could be considered for 2021-22. Projects are selected through a review of the facility finance plan, facility maintenance and management plan, pavement management plan, water master plan and the sewer master plan.
Deputy public works director Jim Houlihan said in his presentation that city staff is proposing a capital improvement program budget of $69.8 million. About $30.6 million of that will involve new funding while $39.2 million will be re-budgeted, although that number is expected to drop in coming months.
Some of the facility projects proposed for the new funding is the Central Library lecture hall, the junior lifeguards headquarters and the rehabilitation of the Cliff Drive Park clubhouse. Other infrastructure projects to be discussed include street rehabilitation and repair.
Also up for deliberation is the Balboa Peninsula summer trolley, which Houlihan said would be discussed at the City Council’s March 23 meeting.
About $5 million in funding is proposed to come out of the general fund while the remaining $25.6 million will be allocated from various other funds.
A commercial robbery Thursday involving a suspect with a knife resulted in an officer-involved shooting — the third such incident to be reported by the department in 40 days.
Additionally, five projects — streetlight rehabilitation, median improvement of Balboa Boulevard, pedestrian improvements for Ocean Boulevard, landscaping enhancements and improvements to the oceanfront boardwalk — were brought before City Council as part of the study session. Those are not currently funded.
The general plan update will also need another $400,000, which City Manager Grace Leung said is primarily for consultant fees, and a permanent supportive housing project will require $1 million.
“As part of the COVID budgeting that we did last year, we deferred projects. There are a set of projects that, whether we found additional funding or the project got recalibrated , we were able to absorb it into the annual $5 million budget we put for a baseline [capital improvement program],” Leung said.
About $21 million in capital improvement projects were deferred last year as part of efforts to balance the budget ahead of the unknown potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Those were the top deferred projects that we knew we needed to move forward on. Those are in and proposed as new projects, but this group right here,” said Leung of the five unfunded projects, “are projects that we do feel should move forward.
“Could they wait a little bit? We could do that if we needed to, but they are kind of the next in line of priority that we’d want to move off of deferral and we think with our surpluses that we’ve had that these would be good candidates to be funded with those funds. We’re just holding right now as we continue to look at what our budget picture looks like to feel comfortable enough with that,” she said.
Councilman Will O’Neill asked city staff to move the streetlight rehabilitation project — about $416,000 — back into the capital improvement program.
The council will be providing direction on which projects should be funded during their budget adoption process in June.
About $14.9 million in projects were completed in the current fiscal year. Some of those projects tackled were median landscaping for West Coast Highway, parks improvement, street reconstruction, a remodel of the police station gun range and replacement of a water main in the area near Newport Pier.
Another $28.4 million still remains in significant projects currently still under construction, such as a new fire station to replace the Lido Fire Station No. 2 on 32nd street, which broke ground in January.
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