Koll expansion moves closer to ballot box

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The first Greenlight vote is all but certain.

For the second time, City Council members voted in favor of the Koll

Center expansion project at their meeting Tuesday.

But changes to the project ordinances to make it clear that the

expansion needs voters’ approval will require a third council vote at the

July 24 meeting.

Council members John Heffernan and Gary Proctor voted against the

expansion, saying the city should first complete its general plan update.

Supporters and opponents of the 250,000-square-foot project, which

includes a 10-story office tower and two parking structures near Koll

Center’s southern tip, at the intersection of Jamboree Road and MacArthur

Boulevard, already began to spar and gave a preview of what’s to come

during an election campaign in the fall.

“The project is detrimental to public health, welfare and safety,”

said Phil Arst, the spokesman for the Greenlight committee, a group of

residents who led the initiative to victory in November.

“The City Council should not sell off residents’ quality of life for .

. . a sweetheart deal for the developer,” he said at the conclusion of

his 15-minute presentation.

Visibly outraged by Arst’s statements that the developers didn’t pay

the city enough money to deal with the traffic problems it will create,

Tim Strader Sr., one of the partners in Koll Center, disputed that his

project was bad for Newport Beach.

“I think I have met the Wizard of Oz,” Strader said. “I think he is

Mr. Arst, the master of misinformation. . . . We’re going to have an

election, and we’re going to get the facts out to the people so that the

people can decide.”

City officials have said the expansion would create “significant and

unavoidable” traffic problems.

During reviews of the project, the city’s planning commissioners said

they could not support the expansion without a development agreement that

would require Koll officials to give money to deal with the issue.

Such an agreement now exists. On top of about $1.16 million in

mandatory traffic and transportation fees, the developers have agreed to

pay $2 million in traffic funds, as well as $60,000 to help build a new

fire station and $112,500 for a planning study for the airport area,

where the project is located.

Strader said this extra money should show residents that traffic

problems that come with the expansion will be dealt with.

“I think that this is a true implementation of the Greenlight spirit,”

Strader said.

Council members agreed that the Koll money would solve traffic issues.

“This [project] has been mischaracterized as [having] terrible traffic

impacts to the city,” said Mayor Gary Adams, who is a transportation

engineer and planner by trade. “If that were true, I would not be

supporting the project.”

But Greenlight supporters, such as Allan Beek, have countered in the

past that the $2 million won’t be enough. Beek also has said that he

believes the project will bring no economic benefits to the city and that

the airport area was already built to capacity according to the general

plan.

Strader countered that Koll Center was the perfect place to add an

office building.

“The project is located in an area on the eastern boundaries of the

city that is zoned for commercial office” space, he said. “It is

surrounded by three freeways and the city of Irvine.”

If council members approve the project at their next meeting, the

expansion will probably go before voters in a special election paid for

by Koll in a few months.

Greenlight requires residents to vote on certain projects that add

more than 40,000 square feet, 100 peak-hour car trips or 100 dwelling

units more than what’s allowed in the general plan.