Still no footbridge for Newport Coast

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT COAST -- Frustrated residents hit another brick wall Wednesday

night in the latest attempt to provide their children with safe access to

a new elementary school.

Newport Coast Elementary School, which is scheduled to open in the fall

with 300 students, sits on the corner of Newport Coast Drive -- a

six-lane highway with a speed limit of 55 mph -- and Park Ridge Road -- a

40-mph road with a steep incline.

Parents are fighting to have a pedestrian bridge built near the school,

saying they are terrified that a child crossing the busy highway will be

struck by a speeding car.

Their new round of pleas were met with no more success than those of past

months, said Dana Schonwit, Newport Coast Elementary PTA vice president.

Sitting opposite Newport Coast residents were members of the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District and Board of Education, Orange County traffic

engineers, and representatives from the city of Newport Beach, Supervisor

Tom Wilson’s office and the Irvine Co.

“I am just amazed that these are the people who chose the site and we

have to tell them that there’s a safety issue. They master-planned

everything,” Schonwit said.

The school district has agreed to bus all students living on the west

side of Newport Coast Drive, but district officials said they can take no

other action at this time.

“That’s currently the only jurisdiction we have,” said school board

president Dana Black. “We want to support the community and parents any

way we can. That’s why we are taking a proactive stance with buses

because that’s the only thing within our ability to do.”

Although busing does ease parents’ minds, they feel the footbridge will

be necessary because children will still go to the school during

afternoons and weekends, when they can’t be bused.

“The school board has agreed to bus children to school, but there are

many other activities,” said Jerry Ross, a Newport Coast resident. “That

won’t take care of all those other times when children will be crossing.”

Overall, residents said they were discouraged with the responses from the

school district, county and the Irvine Co.

When the county’s traffic department conducted a study months ago, they

reduced the speed limit on Newport Coast Drive from 60 to 55 mph and set

a speed limit of 40 mph on the previously unmarked Park Ridge Road -- a

small concession, residents said at the time.

Residents fear a traffic study conducted now will not reflect the true

nature of the community when the school opens.

With a commercial shopping center being built across Newport Coast Drive,

a Marriott resort going up nearby and Sage Hill High School near

completion, residents said the community is only 40% complete.

County traffic engineer Ignacio Ochoa said public input is always

considered, but decisions are based primarily on a state manual. Ochoa

said he hopes to have a report to the county’s traffic committee by May

18.

Meanwhile, residents said, they will continue to fight for a footbridge.

“It’s just going to end up being a waiting game until someone gets hurt,”

Schonwit said.