Edits to Newport Beach’s film policy tabled after lack of community input
Although some community members have grumbled in recent months over Newport Beach’s film permitting policies, no one from the public showed up at a City Council study session Tuesday to provide input, so members opted to table the discussion for now.
Councilwoman Diane Dixon brought the item to the council for study after a business owner in the Balboa Fun Zone complained about the impact on their bottom lines when foot traffic was shut down for the filming of a feature film called “Jesus Revolution,” a movie about Orange County pastor Greg Laurie that stars comedian Jim Gaffigan.
Dixon said she had received a few complaints about the filming, from residents and business operators. But she also noted that in calling for the discussion she was not trying to discourage film productions from coming to the city.
“We have a beautiful city and we should want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to see it, but I am sensitive to the commercial impacts as well as the residential impacts,” she said.
Newport Beach requires a permit if a project involves staging, shooting, making, capturing, taking or recording of images for any commercial or business purposes both in public and on private properties. Any filming in the city may not interrupt the flow of traffic or pedestrians and cannot endanger the public peace or residents.
The city requires production to take place between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. seven days a week. Notification must be be given to all residences and businesses within a 500-foot radius of a filming location at least 48 hours prior to filming.
There are currently no limits on how often a location can be used for filming, nor are there any existing blackout dates, times or locations for granting film permits.
About $350,000 will go to UC Irvine. The technology is expected to take about three years to develop.
City finance director Scott Catlett said about 200 to 300 filming permits are issued annually in Newport Beach. The majority of productions seeking permits are reality shows — about 53% — with still photography following at 20%. By comparison, feature films account for only about 3% of the city’s filming permits.
The city collaborates with FilmLA to issue the permits. Catlett said five complaints were made to both FilmLA and city staff in the past year. Four were residential and resolved, but the fifth was commercial in nature and came from the Balboa Fun Zone over the filming of “Jesus Revolution.”
Tony George, owner of Surfside Pick Your Print, and other business owners in or around the Balboa Fun Zone in April said they received little notice before the film’s crew shut down part of the boardwalk during the final weekend of spring break season, a move that negatively affected their sales.
Mayor Pro Tem Noah Blom said during Tuesday’s study session he feels the city has a good handle on film permitting, and he doesn’t see a need for additional restrictions. Though there was one commercial complaint, Blom said it wasn’t necessarily indicative of a greater problem in need of a solution.
“There’s always going to be a complaint. Our answer can’t be to run to the complaint to change policy,” Blom said.
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