Leading Newport Beach’s charge

With this week’s annexation of Newport Coast, the redevelopment of

Balboa Village and the usual water-quality issues -- just to mention a

few -- Newport Beach has its hands full this year.

Leading the charge will Tod Ridgeway, who was unanimously given a

one-year term as mayor by his colleagues in December.

The 56-year-old developer, now entering the fourth year of his first

term as a city councilman, sat down with Assistant City Editor James

Meier on Thursday to chat about his new role, the Greenlight Initiative,

affordable housing and his reelection campaign.

What are your goals in your one-year term as mayor?

A: To really shepherd the general plan amendment process for the city

to develop, what I’d call, a balanced growth between the

environmentalists and the economy of this city. Part of that will include

trying to close the gap of the confrontation between the Greenlight

people and City Council.

My opinion is that we as the City Council have not done a good job

with eduction and communication to the citizens. I think about 65% of the

citizens consider themselves no-growth or slow-growth. Forget Greenlight.

What we have is a barrier to communicate, so one of my goals will be to

communicate what this current government, what it has done in the past

and what its goals for the future are.

The interesting thing between ourselves as council and all the

citizens who are involved in the government process is we all have one

goal in mind, and it’s the same: the quality of life in this city. We

appear to find ourselves confrontational when, in my opinion, we probably

have common ground on 95% of the issues, if not more.

What I think has occurred through politicking is a failure to

communicate. Are we guilty at this point of time? The buck stops here, so

yes, we are guilty.

Some of the issues are much simpler -- the airport extension

agreement, annexation of Bay Knolls and Santa Ana Heights, continuing the

redevelopment of Balboa Village, clean water, storm drains, ocean issues.

I don’t think there’s any disagreement between any citizen and what we

are doing as a city on those. Those are easier to deal with because we

almost have a unanimous consensus.

Being a developer yourself, what’s your take on managed growth and

development in this Greenlight city?

A: Well, you’re qualifying it as if a developer has an expertise. And

it’s funny. As a developer, obviously my friends and peers are all

developers and many of them are for managed growth. I like to use the

word “balanced growth.” The question of managed, or balanced, growth --

this is one that needs defined and then disseminated to educate these

people.

I have met with the Greenlight people, and they’re talking about

controlled growth and managed growth. And I said, “You know, guys, in my

opinion, you’re missing something here and that is you seem to focus only

on commercial development.” In the coastal development I am in, I and I

think the entire council is in agreement that that area between here

[Newport Center] and Bristol [Street] should be a balanced growth, both

commercially and residentially.

Remember, if you use their term, that allows for higher density of

housing and then that’s what the latest mantra of the Urban Land

Institute and Controlled Growth talks about -- confining everything

within your city and not going outside of it and creating a

higher-density residential. And I’m of the opinion that the residential

that was created at Bonita Village created more traffic problems for

Corona del Mar than any commercial development.

So, the slow growth advocates seem to focus on commercial yet we have

decreased the intensity of land use in this city in the last 10 years and

have actually reduced on the books average daily trips by about 2,000

because we downzoned the Ford Aeronautics property, the Plaza de Cafe and

put in commercial uses that were not generating traffic.

So this is what I mean by the failure to communicate. In 10 years,

this council has not done anything to increase traffic and yet, in my

opinion, traffic has been created by residential communities because of a

lot of apartment complexes. There’s a 1,100-unit Bonita Canyon-Bonita

Village project that was built by the Irvine Co. They processed that in

the county under the area of influence of Irvine, and we had minimal

input.

The council needs to communicate. One, what are we really talking

about? Are we talking about commercial or residential? There’s an ability

within this city, in Corona del Mar and the peninsula, to build 4,000

more houses on lots that are side by side that are not merged into one

lot. Four thousand. There are cities that are not big. Anyhow, that goes

to my theme of better communication.

As a developer, this is where I live and am definitely on board with

quality of life, but that means we need to balance some economic growth

in order to sustain this city.

Do you think someone should challenge the legality of the Greenlight

Initiative?

A: First of all, the citizens voted it in, and it is the current law

of the land, and we, as a council, are sworn to uphold that. So if

someone chooses to challenge it, that’s up to them. My own opinion is I

question the constitutionality of creating a referendum on every general

plan amendment when there is a referendum process provided for it in the

Constitution in the state of California.

Beyond that, I have really no real opinion. I don’t know if it’s going

to be challenged. I don’t think it will be challenged by the Koll

proponent, Tim Strader, but they do reserve the right to do that. It’s a

very expensive proposition to file and, in my mind, the only grounds it

can be challenged on is constitutionality, and that’s very difficult.

But, as a city, we will uphold it.

You advocate affordable housing. What exactly would you consider

affordable housing in Newport Beach and how would you push that here?

A: First of all, all affordable housing in the state of California is

based on income levels, and we have a fairly high income level in the

city of Newport Beach. We did just announce a senior affordable housing

project for lower Bay View and the standard that will be used will be 50%

is for very low- and another 30% is for low-income people. So, the

formula that is used for affordability is based upon your income level.

But we have displaced a lot of our older people. About 65% of our

citizenry is 35 years and older, so we do have to provide for that 65%.

The senior affordable housing does that.

For entry level, I think we lost that a long time ago. But I can tell

you we are working with a developer and a landowner for a family project.

We are looking at whether that will take place this year or the next

couple years. Again, that will be based upon very low- to low-[income],

as opposed to moderate. But we’re really trying to allow for people to

enter into the housing market here in Newport. It’ll be a rental, but at

least it’ll allow editors like yourself to live in Newport Beach.

What are your proudest accomplishments in this first term as a

councilman?

A: Probably the most significant is my involvement with the harbor

committee in creating the harbor element of the general plan, which is a

discretionary element. We believe it’s the only one in the entire United

States. It’s the only addition to the general plan that addresses

specifically the harbor. So that accomplishment took three years.

Another is my involvement with the harbor-quality committee. It’s

creating a higher profile for that committee and clean water in both the

Back Bay and our oceanfront. I’m very proud of that. I think that

everybody in this city is an environmentalist -- it’s just a question of

degree.

I haven’t thought of accomplishments because it just seems like

there’s new issues every day. Those are more personal issues. The ongoing

negotiation for the extension of the John Wayne agreement I’m involved

in, but it’s not my own personal accomplishment, but I’m very involved in

it and am proud of our position.

Another accomplishment is the down coast annexation. There were two of

us -- Councilman Dennis O’Neil and myself -- that negotiated with the

[Irvine Ranch Water District] and the down coast committee in bringing it

to the council for what is now cityhood. I consider that a big

accomplishment. There were many nights we went till midnight in

negotiations on that issue.

What are some of the issues you’ll highlight in your reelection

campaign this year?

A: That assumes I’ll run for reelection, but yes, so we’ll make that

clear. I think it’s the same. I ran a campaign on balanced growth. I

still stand by that -- balanced growth and quality of life. It would be

the same to protect the coastal zone from overdevelopment -- both

residential and commercial -- but some degree of development. And to

maintain quality of life. I hope to continue my involvement on the

harbor-quality committee, where we look at the Back Bay water issues and

the ocean’s water issues.

As an aside, I’m on the Orange County Sanitation District as the

city’s representative. We, as a council, oppose the 301H waiver. We want

full secondary treatment from the sanitation district, and that would be

a campaign issue. Generally, the whole water issue is an issue.

But it really doesn’t change. If the John Wayne settlement agreement

is not complete, that is probably the single-biggest issue, but I think

that will resolve itself this year.

Do you have any further political aspirations?

A: No. Been offered. No.

Any final thoughts?

A: I think the council seems to be a little bit marginalized right

now. I’m asking for more fair reporting. I think better balance. I think

we as a council need to communicate all those good things we have done in

the past 10 years. That will occur under my watch. Hopefully, the

citizens will understand we’re not confrontational, but that we agree on

over 95% of the issues, and yet it doesn’t appear that way. I’m looking

at better communication, better education, and once that occurs I think

generally we’ll be better off.

And we’ll be back to what I hope is representative government.

Greenlight has really put a big hole in representative government, and I

think that’s unfortunate.

BIO INFO

Name: Tod Ridgeway

Age: 56

Years in Newport Beach: More than 25

Family: Wife of 12 years, Kay; and children Kyle, 11, Scott, 9, and Madison, 7

Occupation: Owner of Ridgeway Development since 1989

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, finance and real estate from

USC, a juris doctorate from Loyola Law School

Community Involvement: Aside from representing District 1 on the

Newport Beach City Council, spent six years on the Newport Beach Planning

Commission and is the council’s representative to the Orange County

Sanitation District

Hobbies: Snow skiing, boating, water skiing and in-line skating with

his children