NEWS
By Emily Foxhall | September 7, 2013
The Newport Beach City Council will return from a brief hiatus Tuesday to discuss outsourcing the city trash service, waiving the bond requirement for the AERIE condominium development project and removing a protected eucalyptus tree. Trash Pickup Newport Beach is the only city in Orange County that uses city employees to pick up residents' trash. In an ongoing discussion of whether this service should be outsourced, city staff will present to the council the proposals solicited in May from outside companies willing to do the work instead.
NEWS
By Jill Cowan | October 2, 2012
Crews have begun planting African tulip and date palm trees on a stretch of Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach near where a woman was killed a year ago when a eucalyptus toppled onto her car. "The African tulips have already been planted and [project manager Iris Lee] expects the date palms to be planted later this week," said Newport Beach city spokeswoman Tara Finnigan. Work on the $308,075 replanting project started on July 30 and is expected to be completed in early November, Finnigan said.
NEWS
By Mike Reicher | June 21, 2012
The parents of a motorist killed after a tree fell on her car have sued the cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, and the tree maintenance contractor. Haeyoon Miller's mother and father filed separate lawsuits within the past week alleging that the two cities and West Coast Arborists were at fault regarding the Irvine Avenue median and its trees. Aside from medical and burial expenses, they are suing for unspecified damages. Miller, a 29-year-old Tustin resident, was waiting for a red light on Irvine Avenue at 17th Street, near the Newport-Costa Mesa border, in September when a blue gum eucalyptus fell and crushed her small sedan.
NEWS
By Mike Reicher | January 9, 2012
The city's first revitalization projects may be delayed because of limited capital funds, City Manager Dave Kiff said in anticipation of Tuesday's City Council meeting, when three of the initiatives are set to be reviewed. Proposed landscaping and other streetscape improvements in West Newport, Santa Ana Heights and Corona del Mar are expected to cost more than $10 million to build and more than $100,000 per year to maintain. "We don't have the resources to bite them off all at once," City Manager Dave Kiff wrote in a newsletter previewing the meeting.
NEWS
By Mike Reicher | January 2, 2012
The Newport Beach Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission plans to vote Tuesday about which trees should replace the eucalyptus removed from Fourth Avenue in Corona del Mar. City staff members recommended gold medallions, dwarf southern magnolias and African tulip trees as suitable replacements. Currently, the Hong Kong orchid is the designated tree for replanting along Fourth Avenue, but a staff report says that it grows too slowly in some areas of the city. Homeowners would be able to chose one of the three new species to plant in front of their homes.
NEWS
By Mike Reicher | November 24, 2011
NEWPORT BEACH — Work crews cut into a concrete median and pruned tree roots where a eucalyptus stood before if fell and killed a motorist in September, according to construction records released by the city. On at least four separate occasions, including one project in 1994 where the city cut the Irvine Avenue median in half, workers likely incurred into the soil near the tree's roots. Independent experts say if the ensuing space is so tight between a tree trunk and the curb, a full-grown eucalyptus may not have enough room to anchor.
NEWS
By Mike Reicher | November 23, 2011
NEWPORT BEACH — Despite opposition from some residents, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to remove 18 eucalyptus trees on the West Bay neighborhood's Holiday Road. Officials overturned a Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission decision from earlier this month that determined the trees should stay, and that the city should look at alternatives. Since a large blue gum eucalyptus fell on a car near the Newport-Costa Mesa border in September and killed a motorist, Newport officials have moved swiftly to analyze the city's other similar trees and cut down those they deem hazardous.
NEWS
By Mike Reicher | November 21, 2011
Stepping into the contentious issue of dangerous eucalyptus trees, the Newport Beach City Council may vote Tuesday to remove about 20 of the blue gum variety. But doing so would overturn a parks commission decision to keep the trees on the West Bay neighborhood's Holiday Road. That issue pits the city's staff and independent arborist against some residents who wish to keep their decades-old landmarks. A city-hired arborist found that 14 of the trees have a high risk of falling, and four were deemed a moderate risk.
NEWS
November 10, 2011
The father of a woman who died in September from a falling tree has tapped a Beverly Hills law firm to represent her family ahead of possible litigation, an attorney from the firm confirmed Thursday. Sunyl Chung, father of Haeyoon Miller, 29, hired the law offices of Richard D. Hoffman, Daniel Boasberg said. Boasberg did not discuss the legal avenues the firm is exploring, but the law requires that the family must first file a claim for damages with Newport Beach, which was maintaining the tree under an agreement with Costa Mesa, before it could pursue a lawsuit.
NEWS
By Mike Reicher | November 7, 2011
NEWPORT BEACH — Before one of them came toppling down and killed a motorist in September, the city's tree-trimming contractor knew that some eucalyptus trees on Irvine Avenue were infested by beetles and termites, public records released Monday show. Still, West Coast Arborists determined that the fatal tree was safe to stand, according to the contractor's records. However, it was unclear from the records if the fallen tree along the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa border was infested by the insects or just standing among other infected trees.