A festival for Newport Beach’s future

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- A citywide festival. Neighborhood workshops and a

touring bus. A phone survey. And a committee of about 30 residents to

pull it all together.

These are some of the ideas members of the city’s ad hoc general plan

update committee discussed this week to involve residents in deciding how

the city should look in the future.

Spread out over several months, the process would lay the foundation

for an update of Newport Beach’s general plan, the document that serves

as a visionary road map to the city’s future face.

The project “should give you a sense of . . . where you are heading as

a community,” said Carolyn Verheyen, who works for a Berkeley-based

consulting firm that advises cities on general plan updates.

Kicking off the process with a get-together for all residents -- with

food, booths by city departments and organizations, and bus tours

offering a fresh look at Newport Beach’s neighborhoods -- would allow

everyone to have a say in which direction the city should take, Verheyen

said.

Interested residents could sign up for an advisory committee at this

“community congress” and help to guide the visioning process, she added.

In the following months, smaller groups of residents could meet in

their neighborhoods to refine suggestions and ideas for the plan.

Many members of the committee, which includes City Council members,

planning commissioners, as well as representatives from other city

committees and the Greenlight Initiative, said they hoped the process

would draw in residents who have not been involved in city affairs so

far.

“I’d really like to see new people,” said Councilwoman Norma Glover,

adding that she did not think an advisory committee should be filled with

people who already sit on other city boards.

Along the way, city officials would prepare reports on suggestions

from residents, Verheyen said. Eventually, the city should end up with a

document that would guide officials in updating the general plan.

But Allan Beek, who represented Greenlight supporters at the meeting,

said residents had already said what kind of city they wanted to live in.

Newport Tomorrow, a citywide study that was prepared 30 years ago,

concluded that residents wanted a high-quality, low-density, residential

community, Beek said.

“I think [the report] still shows what people want,” Beek said, adding

that some projects, such as an aquatic complex, have since become

obsolete.

While Verheyen said it was difficult to put a price tag on the plan,

she added that other cities she has worked with spent at least $80,000.

“What they’ve scoped out is more than that,” she said, adding that a

phone survey alone would cost about $40,000. “Certainly more than

$100,000.”

Sponsorship of things such as the touring bus or food at the festival

could lower the costs, Verheyen said.

Ad hoc committee members will discuss the plan again at their Feb. 12

meeting. Once City Council members have signed off on the proposal, the

festival could take place in the spring, Verheyen said, adding that the

process could be wrapped up by November.

FYI

The ad hoc general plan update committee’s next meeting will take

place at 4 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Newport Beach Central Library, 1000

Avocado Ave.