Part of Fernleaf Avenue in Newport will permanently become one-way southbound street

With the conclusion of a six-month trial period, the 200 block of Fernleaf Avenue in Newport Beach will remain a one-way southbound street following action taken by the City Council Tuesday night.

City staff were directed in April to place signs to notify drivers of this trial change between Seaview Avenue and Ocean Boulevard after residents petitioned the city for it, noting they were witnessing traffic confrontations, excessive congestion, damage to parked vehicles and delayed emergency responses.

The street is fairly narrow — about 30 feet curb to curb — and residents said it isn’t uncommon for cars going in opposite directions to be forced to yield to one another to avoid collisions.

A staff report accompanying the agenda items this week noted that this specific block of Fernleaf Avenue is especially impacted because “it provides direct access from Bayside Drive to Ocean Boulevard, China Cove and Corona del Mar State Beach via the Fernleaf ramp.”

Also affected are the 200 blocks on neighboring Goldenrod and Dahlia avenues, where northbound traffic was diverted from Fernleaf, according to traffic studies conducted by city staff. Neighbors there also requested the conversion of their streets to one-way northbound traffic, citing safety issues that resulted from the traffic diversion.

Councilman Will O’Neill expressed his hope that the conversion of all three streets would be contained to their respective 200 blocks.

“This has always been a long discussion point in [Corona del Mar], so I just want to make sure that I understand when we’re doing this that it’s very limited in scope and not beyond this or at least any intention of doing this anytime soon,” O’Neill said.

City staff confirmed Tuesday that the scope of the one-way street directions would be limited to the three blocks under discussion and that there does not appear to be widespread support for converting a majority or all streets in Corona del Mar to one-way traffic.

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.