Parking Structure

The first structure at Newport Beach's new civic center is set to be built if the City Council on Tuesday approves a $7.8-million payment for a parking structure. After a competitive bidding process, the city singled out an Anaheim Hills concrete company to likely build the three-story, 450-space facility. The partially subterranean garage will serve a new City Hall, an expanded central library and surrounding public grounds. It is all part of a larger $130 million civic center project that broke ground in May. With the city's finances tight, the ambitious project has come under scrutiny, leaving city officials to defend its cost and timing.

Police are looking for a group of men who attacked two others in Costa Mesa?s Triangle Square parking structure just before 2 a.m. Friday. According to police, a 27-year-old man from Rancho Cucamonga and his friend, a 26-year-old man from Fontana, were leaving the Chronic Cantina when they crossed paths with a group of five to 10 people leaving Sutra Lounge next door. As they each went to their cars, one of the two men, both intoxicated, made a comment to one of the girls in the larger group, said Sgt. Zack Hoferitza.

A Huntington Beach man fell from a Costa Mesa parking structure to his death in the early morning and police have initially ruled the death a suicide, authorities said. The body of James Wellenstein, 35, was found at 1:35 a.m. outside the parking structure at 1901 Newport Blvd., adjacent a nightclub. Evidence suggests Wellenstein had been smoking for considerable amount of time on top the structure, and hand and foot prints show he crawled to the ledge before falling, said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Zack Hoferitza.

Passenger convenience and cost concerns have caused John Wayne Airport officials to tinker with the construction schedule for $437 million in airport improvements. A new parking structure that would have been built first under the old plans will now be built later, after the new six-gate passenger terminal, airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge said. The terminal should be completed in 2010 rather than two years later, and the parking garage will now be done in 2012. An existing parking structure will be demolished to make way for the new terminal, so street-level parking will be offered to replace it. The airport will have more parking overall once the expansion project is complete.

Building a Newport Beach city hall is a lot like buying a new car, according to one architectural firm vying for a chance to design the structure. How much the project will cost depends a lot on what options you want. City officials are looking to spend anywhere from about $58 million to $73 million for a city hall, adjacent park and parking structure on a prime piece of land on Avocado Avenue next to the central library. “It’s not extravagant but it’s not the cheapest budget you could get,” said Dan Heinfeld, president of the Irvine-based architectural firm LPA, which is competing to design the structure.

A parking structure at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian was shut down for roughly two hours Tuesday afternoon when a despondent man threatened to jump off the top story, Newport Beach police said. The 32-year-old man tied one end of a rope to a car and the other end around his neck and threatened to kill himself while waving a large knife, Sgt. Evan Sailor said. “Officers closed down the access points to the parking structure and began talking with the despondent male.

John Wayne Airport parking structure closed All four levels of the northwest parking structure at John Wayne Airport have been closed, while the structure undergoes a seismic retrofit.The parking structure, located on the north end of the Thomas F. Riles Terminal, is scheduled to reopen in October. At that time, airport managers are scheduled to close the southwest parking structure for similar work. The southwest structure would reopen in April.

Alicia Robinson The city will consider how to solve parking problems on the Balboa Peninsula, but a solution is likely to cost between $6 million and $12 million. Despite that price tag, Councilman Tod Ridgeway's plan to build a 135-space parking structure at 23rd Street and Balboa Boulevard survived a study session Tuesday without being vetoed by the City Council. With businesses and beachgoers competing for a limited number of spaces, parking in the McFadden Square area is a congested nightmare in the summer months.

I am writing regarding the parking problem at Newport Harbor High School ("Newport Harbor High parking stirs debate," April 10). Although I am not on any "committee" or part of the "team" responsible for coming up with a resolution to this problem, the Community Commentary from Meridee Thompson was the first I've read on the subject that has made any sense ("Newport Harbor parking problems simply need thought," ...

Police have been unable to identify a man who apparently jumped to his death from a six-story parking structure across the street from South Coast Plaza on Wednesday night, officials said. South Coast Plaza security guards found a man lying next to a parking structure at 660 Town Center Drive at about 10:40 p.m., said Sgt. Bryan Glass. There were no witnesses, and nothing seemed suspicious about the death, Glass said. His injuries were consistent with someone who had fallen from the structure, police said.

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.

The case of Newport Beach resident who fell to her death in Irvine has been ruled a suicide, the county coroner's office said Wednesday. Mary "Katherine" Baird Darmer, who taught at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, fell from a parking structure in the 19000 block of MacArthur Boulevard on Friday. She was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where she died of her injures, according to the coroner's office. She was 47. Friends remembered Darmer as an outspoken gay-rights advocate who provided legal advice to the Orange County Equality Coalition and as an involved neighbor in her community.

Friends of a Chapman University law professor who died after falling from a parking structure last week remembered her as a legal ally to supporters of same-sex marriage. Mary "Katherine" Baird Darmer was one of the founding members and served as the legal chairwoman of the Orange County Equality Coalition, providing legal counsel to those working to repeal Proposition 8. Darmer, who lived in Newport Beach, fell from a parking structure in the 19000 block of MacArthur Boulevard in Irvine on Friday.

A 68-year-old Costa Mesa man died Thursday after apparently jumping from a six-story parking structure near the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The body of Richard French was found about 11:19 a.m. in some bushes alongside the Park Center Parking Structure, near Town Center and Park Center drives, police and county coroner officials said. Paramedics performed CPR on French for about 15 minutes after pulling him from the bushes, said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Vic Bakkila. French's car was parked atop the structure.

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.

COSTA MESA — On paper, the 2011 Orange County Fair was a huge success. An attendance record was set. In four weeks, more than 1.4 million people passed through the fair gates — a 21% increase from 2010. Organizers saw other increases compared to last year as well: 21% in admission revenue, 35% in both carnival game and rides revenue, and 28% in food and beverage sales. Double-digit gains across the board are great, fair officials say, but there is one number that sticks out to them: 8%. That's how much revenue went up for parking this year compared to last.

I am constantly observing people in my life who are quietly and unobtrusively serving others without fame and notoriety. Shortly after our marriage, my wife Sheila introduced me to an Evangelical minister who had received a call by the spirit to "feed my flock" – in the most basic way. It happened without fanfare and began with the left-over bagels and pastries from his favorite coffee shop, and has grown into a program where he was distributing tons...

A Corona del Mar woman has created a website, called Stop Airplane Noise, in response to a new John Wayne Airport flight path that many residents believe has planes flying over the village and creating unprecedented noise. "My webpage and petition is meant to give CdM residents a central place to post their comments and sign a petition," said Kay Rackauckas. Rackauckas said that after she was quoted on the Corona del Mar Today site and later wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Pilot about 20 people approached her, asking what to do to make their concerns known.

A Marine remained in critical condition Monday at Western Medical Center after he and a friend were assaulted in the parking lot of Sutra Lounge in Triangle Square. Alex Martinez, 21, was struck in the head early Sunday morning by Mark Allen Vasquez, 24, of Pico Rivera, according to Costa Mesa police. Martinez's head then hit the floor of the fourth-floor parking structure and he went unconscious. His friend, Victor Zavela, 21, was also hit but did not sustain serious injuries.