City Council leaning away from bluffs plan

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Property owners on Corona del Mar’s bluffs are bound

to breathe a sigh of relief tonight.

City Council members are saying they don’t feel comfortable with a

Planning Commission proposal to create an extra review layer for new

homes in the area. The proposal was made after several people had come

before the panel with plans for houses covering most of the bluff on

their property.

But council members said Monday that while their own policy calls for

protection of the bluffs, a mandatory site plan review suggested by

planning commissioners was not the way to go about it.

“We need to create a balance between that policy and upholding

people’s property rights,” Councilman Tod Ridgeway said.

He added that under the current proposal, it would be up to the

discretion of planning commissioners to approve or deny a project.

“What’s missing in this current proposal is adequate standards,”

Ridgeway said. “If it’s vague and ambiguous, it’s not enforceable.”

Tonight’s vote comes as city officials have been working on a set of

guidelines for reviewing new housing projects. Because this will take

more time than expected, city staff members have recommended sending the

matter back to planning commissioners before pushing ahead.

During an April 5 public hearing before the Planning Commission,

several property owners complained that the new rule would jeopardize

homes they were planning to build.

Some said they had already submitted plans to the city’s building

department and felt that a change in the process midway was unfair.

Mayor Gary Adams, who agreed that planning commissioners needed to

spend more time fine-tuning the proposal, said people with projects

already before the city should be exempt from the changes.

Those projects, however, were the reason why commissioners had pushed

for a speedy adoption of the new rule.

“If they are going to send it back to us -- the longer that we review

[the proposal], the more time elapses for more development,” said Ed

Selich, who chairs the Planning Commission. “You wait long enough and

there won’t be a bluff left to worry about. I guess we could always do

that.”

Selich added that it was up to the city’s elected leaders to make the

final decision.

“It’s really up to the council,” he said, adding that the commission

simply served as an advisory board. “They are the policy makers.”

Councilman Steve Bromberg agreed.

“If we pass this ordinance, we would give non-elected officials the

authority to basically create and conduct a design review, which has

never been a healthy proposition in Newport Beach,” Bromberg said. “I’m

not a believer in design review. I’m not convinced that telling people

how they should build their homes is the way to do it.”

Other council members said they’d like to explore other ways to

protect the bluffs. The pending general plan update would probably be an

appropriate forum to address the issue, said Councilman Dennis O’Neil,

who represents Corona del Mar.

He added that his district shouldn’t be the only area in town

affected.

“I’d like to look at it more globally,” he said. “We should be looking

at all of our coastal bluffs, not just the bluffs in Corona del Mar.”

FYI

Newport Beach City Council members will meet at 7 p.m. today at City

Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd.