Irvine Co. objects to plans to donate part of Newport art museum land
While the 25-story Museum House condominium project approaches its final hurdle with Newport Beach leaders, the future of an adjacent piece of the Orange County Museum of Art’s land looks hazy.
The Museum of Art, which has occupied a 3-acre site in Newport Center for decades, is looking to sell its land in an effort to help fund its move to a new building in Costa Mesa near the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
The museum building, on two acres at 850 San Clemente Drive, is slated to be replaced by the 100-unit luxury condo tower known as Museum House.
An adjacent 1-acre parcel at 856 San Clemente, valued at nearly $9 million, is currently occupied by a single-story building used for museum administrative offices and storage.
Join the conversation on Facebook >>
The museum agreed to donate the acre to the city if Museum House is approved. However, the Irvine Co., which donated that land to OCMA in 1995, said this week that it will not sign off on the donation to the city.
Irvine Co. spokesman Bill Lobdell said the Orange County development giant also does not plan to remove a use restriction on the 1-acre property that is set to expire in 2055. The restriction mandates that the building be used as a cultural institution.
“It never was the intent of Irvine Co. to see its gifts to public culture turn into a private development,” Lobdell said.
Newport Beach Community Development Director Kim Brandt said the city doesn’t have any plans for the parcel, which is zoned for private institutional use.
OCMA representatives declined to comment.
The Irvine Co. donated 2 acres for the museum site in 1977 and followed it up 18 years later with a donation of the adjacent acre, along with $500,000 to expand and improve the museum. In 1985, the company donated $1 million to underwrite major art exhibits at the museum for a decade.
“It is our belief that all three acres — given in good faith to benefit Newport Beach residents in perpetuity — add to the city’s prosperity, vitality and enrichment,” Lobdell said. “We hope the city of Newport Beach will continue to use the entire property as intended, for cultural purposes.”
The Irvine Co. has been critical of the Museum House project, particularly its height. The company’s Villas at Fashion Island apartments are adjacent to the planned Museum House site.
“Residents in the Villas, directly across the street from the Museum House tower, will be denied a view of anything but the building mass,” Irvine Co. Senior Vice President Dan Miller wrote in a September letter to the city.
The environmental impact report on the project stated that though the buildings immediately adjacent to the Museum House site are primarily low- and mid-rise, the tower would not adversely affect views of the Pacific Ocean or Newport Bay.
“It would complement the existing skyline of tall buildings,” the report states.
Museum House won unanimous approval from the city Planning Commission in October. For the project to keep moving forward, the City Council will have to affirm the commission’s recommendation to approve a general plan amendment changing the land use from private institutional to multi-unit residential, with a limit of 100 units.
The council is expected to consider the project this month.
--
Hannah Fry, hannah.fry@latimes.com
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
