More Newport Center Plans Shelved Over Initiative

Faced with a slow-growth initiative on the ballot in November, Pacific Life Insurance Co. on Friday became the third company to withdraw plans for a major expansion of its headquarters in Newport Beach.

In tandem with the Irvine Co. and other landowners in and around Fashion Island, Pacific Life had been seeking an amendment to the city’s general plan that would have allowed the company to increase its headquarters by 420,000 square feet.

But in light of the ballot measure--dubbed the Greenlight Initiative--both the Irvine Co. and the California Teachers Retirement System have recently pulled out of the process.

Pacific Life notified city officials Friday afternoon that it would follow suit, effectively ending plans that would have seen a major increase in retail and commercial space in the high-rent Newport Center neighborhood.

“The uncertainties involved with continuing the Newport Center general plan amendment are significant, and therefore we have elected to withdraw our project from the process,” said Thomas Mays, vice president of governmental relations at Pacific Life.

Faced with significant crowding at its headquarters, Pacific Life recently announced it would move 450 employees, or about 25% of its Newport Beach work force, to a building in Foothill Ranch.

The move was to have been a short-term solution while the company pursued its now-abandoned expansion plans and evaluated its long-term options.

The commercial expansion plans for the area around Fashion Island had become a target of slow-growth activists who claimed that additional buildings would draw a significant amount of traffic and generate little new revenue for the city.

The initiative, which was certified for the November ballot last month after a petition drive, would force a citywide vote on any proposal that would be large enough to require a change in the city’s general plan. In neighborhoods that are considered highly developed, even a small building project would trigger a vote under the plan.

Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce President Richard Luehrs said the Greenlight Initiative has already been detrimental to the city, even though it won’t come to a vote for nearly nine months.

“The economy is as strong as it’s ever been. The outlook is stronger than ever,” Luehrs said.

“Unfortunately . . . we’ve got a cloud over that prosperity.

“Just think of what that might have meant in terms of investment in the community to have the Irvine Co. build new commercial space and draw more jobs, and to have expanded retail sales at Fashion Island . . . and increased payroll for the State Teachers Retirement System and Pacific Life,” Luehrs said.

“That’s why the chamber will most likely work to defeat the Greenlight Initiative.”

Rather than claiming victory in the wake of Pacific Life’s announcement, Greenlight proponent Philip Arst praised the company for its sensitivity to the residents of Newport Beach.

“They were good corporate citizens and took note of the fact that 10,000 people signed petitions saying they didn’t want more high-density growth and traffic in the city,” Arst said.

“I don’t see any economic impact on Newport Beach because it’s been established that office buildings do not bring any net revenues into the city but they do bring a lot of traffic.”