Parking Spaces

In only a few parts of Newport Beach can someone have trouble finding free parking. Balboa Village, the commercial district near the Balboa Pier, is one of them. Often visitors cruise nearby residential streets until they find an open space, crowding out frustrated residents. Some of that frustration has been worked out in a new parking plan detailed at a community meeting Tuesday. The Balboa Village Citizen Advisory Panel reviewed a draft plan that would make some residential areas permit-parking only, and would make all commercial street spaces metered.

Travelers will soon have more room stretch out and more spaces to park in, once John Wayne Airport officially opens its new Terminal C on Monday. Officials on Wednesday previewed the building with six additional gates, a 2,000-space parking structure, and the latest security and ticketing technology. Originally proposed to meet bursting air travel demand, Terminal C opens amid a tepid market and weak economy. John Wayne operates under its limit of 10.8 million passengers annually, but officials expect traffic to pick back up. Terminal C is the capstone of the airport's $543-million expansion and renovations, first approved by the county Board of Supervisors in 2004.

Here are some items the Planning Commission will consider Monday: PERFORMING ARTS AGREEMENT The Planning Commission will review a development agreement to make su re the Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory Theater have met their responsibilities. The center made commitments that included creating a plan for a theater and arts district, adding traffic improvements, and building a new theater and concert hall, which are now under construction.

Here are some decisions coming out of Tuesday's City Council meeting. MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING A medical office building will be built at 494 and 496 Old Newport Blvd., council members decided Tuesday. At issue was the question of whether the Planning Commission was right to allow developer Robert Lawrence of TRP Development Services to build a slightly larger building than would normally be allowed with 45 parking spaces. The rationale was that two of the parking spaces on the street would be used for the building and that, therefore, the building could be 500 square feet larger.

INSIDE CITY HALL Here are a few of the items the Commission considered Monday. PLANNING APPLICATION The applicant, Kim Berry, representing Cameo Homes, requested approval of a master plan amendment and changes from perimeter open-space requirements and for a reduction in the number of on-site parking spaces. At the site is a 276-unit apartment complex named Park Mesa Village at 550 Paularino Ave. Berry proposed replacing 80 parking spaces with 70 one-garage spaces in seven buildings.

ON THE AGENDA 1901 Newport Planning commissioners will collect public input tonight about probable plans for 1901 Newport -- the striking Spanish-style building in the heart of downtown -- including the effects of putting homes on the property. A mandatory report that gauges the effects of proposed developments on the neighborhood and environment -- formally known as the Draft Environmental Impact Report -- is now available for public review at City Hall and Costa Mesa libraries.

Deirdre Newman Negotiations to resolve the 1901 Newport Blvd. lawsuit have inspired three alternatives to the high-density condominium project, which city leaders will consider Tuesday. But the opposing parties have not agreed on one of those alternatives. The project, which calls for four four-story buildings in the parking lot of the Spanish mission-style property, has been in limbo since August. Rutter Development sued the City Council and Costa Mesa Citizens for Responsible Growth last summer, claiming that a rehearing on the downtown condominium project was granted illegally, without the required presentation of new evidence.

June Casagrande BALBOA VILLAGE -- Businesses suffering because of construction work may find that city solutions are too little too late. Local officials are looking for ways to ease the burden on shops along Balboa Boulevard where sidewalks are torn up, parking spaces are taken away and access to stores is blocked off. The work, which began in November, is just the first phase of a three-phase project to improve and beautify the small commercial area.

Newport Beach City Council members have tossed out the idea of turning the existing City Hall site into a 300-space parking lot after employees vacate for their new Civic Center later this year. But the council on Tuesday balked at the interim plan to demolish the City Hall structures and install parking meters at the 4.26-acre site along the parking-impacted Balboa Peninsula. Councilman Mike Henn, who has a business client in nearby Lido Village, recused himself from the discussion.

In only a few parts of Newport Beach can someone have trouble finding free parking. Balboa Village, the commercial district near the Balboa Pier, is one of them. Often visitors cruise nearby residential streets until they find an open space, crowding out frustrated residents. Some of that frustration has been worked out in a new parking plan detailed at a community meeting Tuesday. The Balboa Village Citizen Advisory Panel reviewed a draft plan that would make some residential areas permit-parking only, and would make all commercial street spaces metered.

Travelers will soon have more room stretch out and more spaces to park in, once John Wayne Airport officially opens its new Terminal C on Monday. Officials on Wednesday previewed the building with six additional gates, a 2,000-space parking structure, and the latest security and ticketing technology. Originally proposed to meet bursting air travel demand, Terminal C opens amid a tepid market and weak economy. John Wayne operates under its limit of 10.8 million passengers annually, but officials expect traffic to pick back up. Terminal C is the capstone of the airport's $543-million expansion and renovations, first approved by the county Board of Supervisors in 2004.

The State Lands Commission has approved the boundaries for Marina Park, bringing the Balboa Peninsula public waterfront development one step closer to construction. By overcoming this hurdle, the city can now complete its California Coastal Commission application and restart the long-stalled project. Park advocates, city officials and others decided on a plan for the development more than three years ago, but it has been stuck in bureaucratic morass. In the meantime, residents of the 57 mobile homes have been afforded more time on public land, while others have protested the slow progress.

NEWPORT BEACH — Residents have griped to their City Council members recently about rehab homes popping up in their neighborhoods. Now it might be the council members' turn to complain about an undesirable land use on property they control: parking. Trying to balance the city's financial needs with civic considerations and their surrounding landowners' goals, public officials are planning the reuse of the current City Hall complex on Newport Boulevard, which is slated to close when the new one opens on Avocado Avenue.

An agreement between Mother's Market & Kitchen in Costa Mesa and the owners of a Newport Boulevard parking structure is intended to ease tensions over parking congestion between employees and nearby residents on the Eastside. Mother's, located on Newport Boulevard and Flower Street, entered into an agreement last week to provide for 100 employee parking spaces on the top level of a parking structure located about a block away at 1901 Newport Blvd., said Debra Robino, a market spokeswoman.

At the Costa Mesa City Council meeting Tuesday night, I realized how fortunate our city was that Jim Righeimer did not get elected. Sitting in the packed council chamber for 3 1/2 hours, I listened to residents plead to the council not to pass an ordinance that would take away their parking spaces. All of at least 50 speakers opposed Righeimer’s idea. Most of these people got a flier that day or the day before describing the ordinance. Kudos to whoever passed out the flier.

The Orange County Fair board is discussing doing away with the equestrian center in order to make way for more parking spaces. The horse stabling and training facilities might have to leave the north end of the grounds to make room for the expansion needs of the complex as a whole, officials said. Since the center is surrounded on all sides by municipal buildings, houses and schools, the facility doesn’t have many other places to turn to satisfy its growing demand for space.

Starting Friday, hourly parking rates at John Wayne Airport will increase for the first time in 18 years. Daily parking rates are also being raised. Hourly parking rates in the terminal structures, Parking Lot C and Main Street are now $2 (up from $1). Daily parking is $20 in the terminal structures (up from $17), $17 in Parking Lot C (which opens Friday and will serve as temporary parking during construction) and $14 on Main Street (up from $12). ?The new parking rates are competitive with those charged at other California airports,?