District halts talks of shared parking

Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT-MESA -- School district officials have ceased talks of a joint

parking lot with St. Andrew’s Church after residents voiced major

concerns this week.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials told church leaders

Thursday night that they were putting brakes on the project for now. They

also canceled two future meetings designed to answer questions and reveal

concept drawings for a jointly operated parking structure on the campus

of Newport Harbor High School.

During meetings this week, residents objected to a proposed plan to

build a joint parking garage, intended to alleviate a lack of on-street

parking, as well as improve traffic circulation and pedestrian safety for

both groups.

Many of the residents said they did not have enough information about

the church’s renovation plans to make informed opinions about the parking

structure, said Mike Fine, the district’s assistant superintendent.

“Let’s get that blank filled in and see where people are at,” Fine

said. “Once we know that, we can see if the parking issue is something to

tackle or not to tackle.”

Church officials first came to the district in November with the

joint-use proposal, offering to pay for about 60% of the construction.

In January, the school board unanimously approved continuing

discussions with church officials to try to reach a mutually beneficial

solution.

The district is not under a time constraint to solve the area’s

parking woes but would like to coordinate any parking project with

Measure A -- the districtwide school facilities improvement program that

will start construction this summer, Fine said. This could be

accomplished just by knowing where on campus the parking lot may be built

so utility lines could be relocated around it, he explained.

That was one point residents couldn’t seem to agree on.

Fine suggested that church officials engage the community in its plans

before asking the district to rejoin its parking solution efforts.

Herbert Smith, the church’s business administrator, agreed to the

request.

“That’s fine with us,” Smith said. “We are reviewing the comments

expressed in the meetings, and they will be incorporated with whatever

future meetings we have with the community.”

Plans to expand the church and youth areas by about 30,000 square feet

are still in the conceptual stage, Smith said. The church is still

committed to solving the problems of parking, noise and traffic in the

neighborhood, he added.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 deirdre.newman@latimes.comf7 .