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.
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