NEWPORT BEACH : Council OKs Plan to Revive Balboa Business

The City Council has approved a land use plan that will guide municipal efforts to revitalize the Balboa Peninsula business district for years to come.

Amid mixed reactions from peninsula residents and business owners, the council voted 6 to 0 Monday night to support the Central Balboa Specific Area Plan, the result of three years of committee study and negotiation. Councilwoman Jean Watt was absent.

City officials hope a concerted plan to make the business district more visible, provide easy access and add parking for visitors will help lure businesses into vacant buildings and storefronts.

“To me, it’s like a blueprint for the future,” Mayor Clarence Turner said.

But some residents fear the plan will draw businesses geared for visitors without serving the needs of peninsula residents. Property owners are concerned the plan’s design standards will force them to remodel to conform to it.

“There are two dozen ‘he’s gotta dos’ that . . . (a business owner) doesn’t gotta do right now,” property owner Clarence Herberts told the council. “We’re not living in old Russia; we’re living in Newport Beach.”

Other business owners touted the plan as a way to clean up dirty sidewalks and spruce up an area that draws primarily young, low-spending customers.

Features of the plan include planned restriping of a city parking lot at the foot of the Balboa Pier to add 109 parking spaces without removing trees or expanding the lot; use of decorative pavers, street lamps, benches and planters to unify the district; design review for new facades or remodeled stores, to establish continuity while encouraging innovative design; and improved signs to direct visitors to businesses and parking by funneling traffic out of residential neighborhoods.