General Plan

June Casagrande In the far-reaching process of updating the city's general plan, consultants have noticed an opportunity to improve emergency response times in case of an airplane disaster within Newport Beach's borders. Right now, if an airplane heading for or leaving John Wayne Airport were to crash in the city, there's no direct communication link to allow air traffic control staff members to alert the city's fire and paramedic response teams. It's a different situation than a possible crash on the airport grounds because the county has its own emergency response team on-site.

A lawsuit challenging the environmental report on changes to Newport Beach's general plan has been dismissed, Newport Beach City Atty. Robin Clauson said. Voters in November approved an overhaul of the general plan, which sets guidelines for development in the city. The suit, filed in August by Stop Polluting Our Newport, said the environmental report on the changes was deceptive because it claims the new general plan would reduce traffic while adding more homes, a spokesman for Stop Polluting Our Newport said at the time.

The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce is urging business members to get involved in the city's general plan update process by attending the city's Visioning Festival on Jan. 12. The free event will take place at the Hoag Hospital Conference Center at 1 Hoag Drive. There will be two sessions -- one from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the other from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Throughout the day, exhibits and information will be on display and available to anyone unable to attend the full session.

Leaders vote to send Newport residents newsletters about vote on policy that will guide growth.A newsletter explaining the update to Newport Beach's general plan will hit residents' mailboxes next month, kicking off a 10-month informational campaign leading up to the Nov. 7 election. The newsletter is one of 12 residents can expect to receive, as part of a $508,000 consulting contract the City Council approved, by a 5-1 vote, Tuesday. Dick Nichols voted against the plan. The general plan is the document that guides how land is used in the city.

Alex Coolman NEWPORT BEACH -- In the wake of Measure S, the battle over growth might seem to have quieted down, but that wasn't the case Monday in the meeting room of the Newport Beach Library. That's where a committee has been gathering to hammer out a revised version of the city's general plan, the document the city uses to guide its policies on safety, traffic and, yes, growth. Newport Beach's general plan was created in the 1970s and portions of it were updated in 1988, but the state Attorney General has been pushing the city to bring the document into the 21st century.

After three years of working on an update of the city's general plan, Newport Beach officials are now down to the nitty-gritty: reducing the expected number of future car trips by paring down the development that's allowed. City Council members began public hearings on the proposed update April 25 and will hold six more hearings. The planning commission also is discussing the general plan at several upcoming meetings. The general plan will guide development in the city for the next 20 years.

A large part of this paper's mission ? perhaps obviously enough ? is covering the community's two city halls. And the nuts and bolts of that coverage involves sitting through a lot of meetings. Our reporters do it routinely. Editors do it occasionally (and have done it a bunch in the past). And we can report that frequently these meetings are excruciating. There is minute detail. There are cranky residents who repeat the same argument over and over and over again. A lot of what is said is in city jargon that's fairly unintelligible.

Newport Beach's next two general plan update community workshops will focus on the airport commercial area and on City Council District No. 7. The workshops, where community members are invited to share input on the goals for the area, will take place Monday. The airport commercial area meeting will run from from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Muth Interpretive Center, 2301 University Drive. The District No. 7 workshop, which includes the newly annexed Newport Coast area, will run from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Central Library Friends Meeting Room, 1000 Avocado Ave. Information: (949)

Deepa Bharath COSTA MESA -- The city on Thursday received an Award of Merit for its 2000 general plan, one that city officials describe as a "vision for the future of our community." The award, given annually by the Orange County Chapter of the American Planning Assn., recognizes outstanding local planning projects. Costa Mesa's general plan is a 20-year master plan for the city, a comprehensive document that provides a foundation for governing bodies such as the Planning Commission and City Council to make decisions on various development issues, Deputy City Manager Don Lamm said.

Mathis Winkler NEWPORT BEACH -- During her 25 years in city government, Asst. City Manager Sharon Wood hasn't seen a letter quite like the one the city received from California's attorney general a few weeks ago. In the three-page document -- clearly a form letter since it refers to the city as "your jurisdiction" and never as "Newport Beach" -- Atty. General Bill Lockyer, or his chief assistant, Richard M. Frank, expressed concern over the city's sluggishness in updating its general plan.

Newport Beach Country Club members will be facing a membership increase, but the extra money won't all be going to the proposed golf clubhouse renovation. According to David Wooten, president and chief executive of both the club and Balboa Bay Club & Resort, the required funds will be secured from two different sources. "[The renovation] would be paid partially internally and partially funded by loans," Wooten said. "Dues would increase like they always have, but we're not expecting those to pay for a new clubhouse.

IRVINE — Plans for nearly 5,000 new homes ringing the Orange County Great Park won preliminary approval from a divided City Council last week. Irvine officials voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday night to OK general plan and zoning changes and $40 million in park infrastructure improvements. The general plan amendment concentrates homes in the northwestern area of the project and allows mixed-use neighborhoods of 4,894 residential units and more than 1 million square feet of nonresidential space.

After several years of redrafting and public meetings, a final version of a citywide update to the Newport Beach zoning code will be the subject of a public hearing Tuesday. The latest version of the overhaul to the 2006 General Plan will keep existing floor plan limits for homes, but also include a modified version of a controversial "open space" provision. This change is an adaptation from a July draft that had a larger requirement for "open volume," but had eliminated the floor area limits, said Jim Campbell, acting planning director.

NEWPORT BEACH — In the run-up to the housing bust a few years ago, the biggest buzz words in the development industry were "urban infill. " Now Newport Beach, which is better known for its rolling hills of homes and beach villages, may soon join the likes of San Francisco and New York in reclaiming industrial land for gleaming condo towers. The City Council on Tuesday approved a conceptual plan to build 1,504 condos, apartments and townhomes, parks and some retail stores near the intersection of Jamboree Road and MacArthur Boulevard, an area dominated by office and industrial buildings.

The Costa Mesa City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to amend its general plan for the Orange County Fairgrounds to further describe and clarify the land use the city will allow for the 150-acre property. Councilman Eric Bever was absent. The city’s next step is to place the amendment on the June ballot in an effort to lock in the land use as a fair and exposition center and place its future in the hands of the voters. The amendment clarifies the types of activities that can take place on the fairgrounds and expands the description of the land use, including providing a guideline on what can and cannot be done on the property.

The Orange County Fairgrounds Board of Directors will meet today to discuss its position on the sale of the fairgrounds. The board members have faced a backlash from the community for lobbying the state to sell the 150-acre property, and residents have demanded that they state their position in public. Meanwhile, the Costa Mesa City Council is scheduled to vote on amending the component of the city?s general plan specific to the fairgrounds. The council recently directed staff to amend that piece of the plan to more broadly define how the fairgrounds?

About 30 political signs posted Wednesday at Corona del Mar businesses along East Coast Highway by the group Friends of Begonia Park are missing. The group, which has fought against one man’s plans to build a home on a lot adjacent to the park because they claim it will block a scenic view of Newport Harbor, has reported the missing signs to police. “I feel a level of consternation and I want to make what happened public, because I don’t think it’s right,” Friends of Begonia Park member Kenneth Jaggers said Thursday.

The Costa Mesa City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to direct staff to make the general plan for the Orange County Fairgrounds’ land use more specific. The amendment will go to the Planning Commission, and then the council for approval, before the council votes to place it on the June ballot. Amending the general plan’s designation for the fairgrounds will provide more details about how the property can be used, which will include expanding the definition of the fairgrounds and asserting the city’s authority over the land use when the state sells the property, said Kimberly Brandt, Costa Mesa’s acting development services director.

A proposed project near Begonia Park in Corona del Mar has some residents taking a stand against the plans, which would block some of the view of the bay from the park. The Newport Beach Planning Commission recently gave its seal of approval to the project, which was originally proposed in April. Initially, the Planning Commission denied the project because it did not conform to building code standards. The project was redesigned and reduced in size before the Planning Commission gave its approval recently, though the City Council still has to sign off on the project before construction can start.