Public gets look at 'Taj Mahal'

But officials defend new civic center, saying 'the public wanted something better.'

December 12, 2012|By Jill Cowan

The new City Hall lights up the darkness in Newport Beach… (Don Leach, Daily…)

From a distance, Newport Beach's new City Council Chambers off Avocado Avenue glowed like a cruise ship, its metal hull rising over a sea of dark construction barriers.

Getting closer Tuesday night, tall walls of windows revealed a crowd gathering to celebrate the City Council's first meeting there, capping off nearly a decade of fierce debate — though officials have emphasized that the completed Civic Center won't officially be unveiled until next year.

An open house is scheduled for May 4.

Inside the chambers, the soaring terraced ceilings, angular-yet-ergonomic furnishings and high-tech accouterments made the 150-seat hall feel like a space-age cathedral.

But critics have said the gods of local government are unworthy of that kind of tribute, dubbing the $131.4-million project Newport's "Taj Mahal."

At a special meeting earlier that day, a few hundred residents crowded into the city's old Council Chambers on Newport Boulevard for the last time to tackle one final piece of major business for 2012: a contentious residential dock fee increase, which the council ultimately approved.

Several speakers took the opportunity to skewer the Civic Center as an example of government spending run amok.

"Politicians everywhere are trying to get into my wallet," resident Roger MacGregor told the council. "The dock tax thing and the Taj Mahal will be your two legacies. You've angered some of the most wealthy and influential people in the harbor."

Kristine Thagard, who spoke on behalf of the Newport Beach Dock Owners' Assn., questioned whether the proposed increases would require the city to bulk up its bureaucracy. In doing so, she got in a dig about the new civic center.

"Just because you have the space at the new City Hall, please don't feel the need to use it," she said.

City officials, though, say the Civic Center will be used for much more than government operations.

"People see value where they want to see value," former Councilman Steve Rosansky said Monday. "It's not just a city hall, it's a civic center, which we really did not have in the city of Newport Beach, no central location where the city's civic identity has been focused."

Councilman Ed Selich added that as a tangible city expenditure, the new City Hall is "a real convenient whipping boy," for people who are being affected financially.

Additionally, he said, the down economy was a good time to act.

1 | 2 | 3 | Next

|

|

|