Tweaks to Balboa Peninsula shuttle may include a longer season and city-owned depot

The next season of Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula Trolley could start on Memorial Day weekend, with the route beginning and ending in a public parking lot rather than in rented space at Hoag Hospital.

The cost increase for a longer season would be lessened by using the city-owned lot, officials told the City Council on Tuesday.

The free shuttle, which debuted last year during the peak tourist season to ferry visitors and locals around the usually congested peninsula, started its route in a hospital parking lot off Superior Avenue, where riders could leave their cars for the day at no cost to them but at a cost to the city of about $8,800 for the season.

Another concern, Hoag can’t commit to a multiyear agreement, said city Deputy Public Works Director Mark Vukojevic.

Using the city-owned lot at Tustin Avenue and Avon Street would eliminate the rent cost and bring the Newport Heights and Mariners’ Mile areas into the shuttle’s reach while keeping the timing of the route about the same, city staff said.

Firing up the service around Memorial Day, three weeks earlier than last year’s mid-June start, would tack on about $17,000 for the season. Funding for that would come from visitor-generated Balboa Village parking revenue, which already helps finance the project, officials said.

The total cost of the extended season would be nearly $165,000.

“The summer season really begins Memorial Day weekend,” Vukojevic said. “That’s when folks change gears and we’re in more of a summer season.”

City staff will send the matter back to the council later this year with a budget amendment.

In its inaugural year — which cost nearly $226,000, including start-up costs such as marketing and signage — the shuttle ran Saturdays and Sundays between June 17 and Sept. 3, plus the Fourth of July and Labor Day. It had 23,560 boardings, or about 900 per day, according to ridership figures compiled by the shuttle’s contracted operator, Signal Hill-based Professional Parking Corp. The route looped between Hoag Hospital and the Balboa Pier.

The shuttle is funded mostly through Measure M, Orange County’s half-cent sales tax for transportation projects, by way of a grant to be distributed over seven years by the Orange County Transportation Authority.

City staff shied away from a suggestion last fall to run the shuttle on Fridays. That would cost $36,000 more.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

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