Beek plans to oppose Koll development

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- As Koll Center officials get ready to sell their

250,000-square-foot expansion project to the city’s voters, the author of

the city’s new slow-growth law said Wednesday he’ll oppose the plan.

“I would give it 70% odds that I would be involved in writing the

ballot argument against” the project, said Allan Beek, who helped bring

Greenlight to victory last year.

Greenlight will play a role in the expansion because it requires voter

approval for any projects that add more than 40,000 square feet, 100

peak-hour car trips or 100 dwelling units above what’s allowed in the

general plan.

City Council members approved the Koll expansion at their meeting

Tuesday, and will vote on a zoning amendment and development agreement

for a second time July 10.

On top of about $1.16 million in mandatory traffic and transportation

fees, the development agreement also requires the developer to pay $2

million for long-term traffic improvements, as well as $60,000 to build a

new fire station and $112,500 for a planning study for the airport area,

where the project is located.

The fact that such a study would come after the project’s approval has

Beek concerned.

With the city planning to review the airport area as part of its

pending general plan update and with long-term traffic studies for the

entire city in the works, an approval of the Koll expansion would be

premature, he said.

“We should not make detailed decisions until we’ve made the overall

decision” about how to approach the city’s long-term traffic problems,

Beek said.

Councilman John Heffernan, the only Greenlight supporter among city

leaders, expressed similar concerns this week. He was the lone council

member to vote against the project.

Tim Strader Sr., one of the partners in the Koll project, has said

that because the city would get the $2 million in extra traffic funds, he

feels the expansion would help to deal with traffic problems in the area

around Jamboree Road and MacArthur Boulevard, where the center is

located.

Strader could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

But Beek, who said he met with Strader to discuss the project and

briefly reviewed the traffic study for the expansion, disagreed.

“The city should rather skip the $2 million [in extra money from Koll]

and not increase traffic,” he said. “The $2 million will go pretty fast,

but the traffic will be with us forever.”

Beek said he doesn’t think the project would bring economic benefits

to the city, adding that he didn’t think any expansion of the airport

area was warranted.

“We just don’t want the extra traffic,” he said. “Why do it? It

doesn’t do us any good. We made a plan for that area. We built it. Why

not stick to it?”

Beek also said he is no longer a member of the Greenlight political

action committee after other members asked him to leave because he is

also a member of the city’s general plan update committee. He added that

other Greenlight supporters wanted to keep a “firewall” between the group

and the city committee. The separation was amicable, he said.

Phil Arst, Greenlight’s spokesman, could not be reached for comment

Wednesday.