Big houses remain big Newport issue

June Casagrande

“Mansionization” continues to emerge as potentially the most

controversial issue in the city’s general plan update process,

responses to a recent city mailer suggest.

The third in a series of newsletters on the general plan update

process was sent out recently to all the households in the city. A

number of phone calls and e-mails to City Hall followed, many of them

from residents who want to be able to build large homes or duplexes

on their property.

“All of the callers on the mansionization issue were individuals

who have purchased residential property as an investment, expecting

to be able to develop large homes and duplexes similar to those we

are seeing today,” Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood reported to the

City Council in a memo. “Many of these people are not large

developers, but individuals for whom this property investment is

their nest egg.”

But at other points during the general plan update process, a very

different view has prevailed: that of residents who consider

mansionization -- the trend toward building large residential

structures on relatively small lots -- a serious problem. Corona del

Mar, in particular, is a place that some residents say should have

its quaint character protected from large homes out of sync with

others nearby.

City officials hope to be able to gather as much input as possible

on the subject to execute residents’ wishes when the general plan is

updated. The document, which sets guidelines, rules and goals for

every aspect of the city’s future, will soon be revised for the first

time in decades. The city is in the middle of its “visioning” process

of gathering residents’ input on the document and the issues it

addresses.

The next step in the process will be a phone survey of about 1,000

Newport Beach residents and 150 businesses. Wood is working with a

city-contracted consulting firm to decide what issues and questions

should be part of the 10-minute resident telephone interviews.

“The survey, hopefully, will supplement and clarify what we’ve

been hearing so far on everything from tourism to traffic,” Wood

said.

The telephone survey will likely take place in October.

On Aug. 26, the city expects to present results of a traffic study

conducted as part of the general plan update. The much-anticipated

study will include projections on just how bad traffic in Newport

Beach will get in the coming decades.