Countdown to 2000: 1980s Politics

Danette Goulet

As the Newport-Mesa area continued to grow in the 1980s, an increasing

number of people began to see development as a liability.

Many residents of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach felt their cities were in

danger of being swamped by traffic generated by the commercial growth.

The resistance to growth was stronger than ever in Newport Beach as a

result of the proposed Newport Center expansion.

For years, developers had paid for the roads surrounding their projects

as incentive to gain city and taxpayer approval. For the Newport Center

expansion plan, the Irvine Co. had pledged to build $40 million worth of

roads, including a long-discussed Corona del Mar bypass. But even with

the bypass as incentive, the voters rejected the project, sending The

Irvine Co. back to revise the plans.

Meanwhile in Costa Mesa, John and Margaret Gardner had taken the city by

storm. They were part of a group called Costa Mesa Residents for

Responsible Growth.

“They were fighting development all over the city -- of any kind,” said

former Costa Mesa Mayor Donn Hall.

At the time, the city council was in favor of controlled development,

Hall said.

“It wasn’t a struggle between pro-growth and anti-growth. It was a

struggle between building a mature community and shutting the city down,”

he said.

The group effectively blocked plans for an IBM national headquarters

between Sunflower Avenue and South Coast Drive and very nearly stopped

the development of Crystal Court and several other projects.

Despite any success the groups had in blocking growth in the area,

transportation and traffic congestion was a growing problem.

In one attempt to ease congestion, the city of Newport Beach instituted a

trolley system in 1986. It lasted only seven months before it became a

financial burden and was shut down.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, a trend that the cities were helpless to

control made traffic even worse. “Cruising” had become the fashionable

thing to do. It was the end of the decade before the traffic problems

would begin to abate.

Sources:

Donn Hall, former Mayor of Costa Mesa; John Cox Jr., former Mayor of

Newport Beach; “Newport Beach, The First Century 1888-1988,” James P.

Felton, 1981; Daily Pilot.