Work begins on Coastline’s Newport campus

Coastline Community College broke ground Tuesday morning on the site of a future “green” campus in Newport Beach.

Coastline and Coast Community College District officials, along with Newport Beach Mayor Mike Henn and about 100 others, gathered at the almost 4-acre site between Monrovia Avenue and Banning Ranch to celebrate the beginning of construction, said Michelle Ma, Coastline’s director of marketing and public relations.

When it opens in fall 2012, the $48-million, three-story building at 1515 Monrovia Ave. will replace Coastline’s Costa Mesa campus on Mesa Verde Drive East. Fountain Valley-based Coastline currently has three mini-campuses in Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and Westminster.

The new campus is slated to offer general education courses in addition to paralegal and acquired brain injury programs, additional programs for students with disabilities and a Veteran’s Resource Center.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Early College High School, which has been housed at the Costa Mesa campus, will be moving to the Newport campus along with the Coastline Art Gallery, now located in Huntington Beach.

The campus will use green building practices, including irrigating with reclaimed water, using drought-tolerant plants in landscaping and using natural light when possible. There is also expected to be a roof garden. Officials are aiming to gain a Platinum LEED certification on the building.

—Britney Barnes