Environmentalism, property rights clash

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Struggling to marry their desire to preserve property

rights with concerns for environmental protection, City Council members

Tuesday voted to hold off on a proposal that would set in place more

stringent reviews of new homes on Corona del Mar’s bluffs.

If passed in the future, the proposal would require so-called “site

plan reviews” for new buildings on 84 lots along the village’s bluffs.

Planning commissioners recommended the reviews after several property

owners submitted plans for new homes that would cover most of the bluffs

on their land.

While a 1988 city policy calls for the “preservation of natural

resources” and efforts to “minimize the alteration of natural land forms

along bluffs and cliffs,” commissioners realized that they had no means

to enforce the policy.

But some council members said Tuesday that it might be too late to

start paying more attention now.

“If we’re serious about [the policy,] we should have been serious

about it in 1988,” said Councilman Tod Ridgeway. “Today, to enforce it,

this many years later, I don’t think it’s fair.”

Ridgeway added that limiting the proposed change to Corona del Mar’s

bluffs would be unfair, since other bluff areas of the city have

experienced similar building projects.A number of residents responded

that there already is enough bureaucracy.

“If we wish to upgrade our homes, we have to jump through a lot of

hoops,” said Eve Brooke, whose Breakers Drive property would be affected

by the new rule. “We don’t need any more.”

Councilwoman Norma Glover, who cast the lone dissenting vote after her

attempt to kill the proposal outright failed to garner support from her

colleagues, said she didn’t want to interfere with people’s property

rights at all.

“I think the homes everywhere are very large,” she said. “That has

become the mode of the day . . . I think it’s the right of every American

to do that if they can afford it.”

With the city’s new slow-growth Greenlight law already restricting

business development in Newport Beach, residential development shouldn’t

be discouraged as well, Glover said.

“I think it’s wonderful that people want to be creative,” she said,

adding that the city took in $21 million in property taxes that paid for

police services.

But residents said they see things differently.

“If you put this off, you won’t have a problem, because you won’t have

a bluff left,” said Luvena Hayton, who has lived in the village for 50

years.

“You say, ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,’ ” Hayton said,

responding to an early comment Glover had made. “Well, believe me, it’s

broken. And you better fix it.”

Community activist Allan Beek commended city officials and planning

commissioners for being “way ahead of the watchdogs” in their work on the

issue, “even though it seems to ruffle some feathers on the City

Council.”

To see what could happen to Corona del Mar’s bluff, Beek told council

members to check out Promontory Point, the area just east of the Back Bay

Bridge, where development had eliminated the bluffs.

Other residents asked council members to consider putting a halt to

all further development until a decision has been made.

After making a motion to put a moratorium on building permits,

Councilman John Heffernan was informed by city officials that this could

not happen until a further meeting, since the public had not been given

enough notice to respond.

The existing proposal for the new rule now goes back to the Planning

Commission, which will try to come up with guidelines to review site

plans in order to add consistency to the application of the new rule.

The next Planning Commission meeting is on May 3 at 6:30 p.m. at City

Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd.