Road to Vision 2004 gets clearer

Paul Clinton

Newport Beach is inching closer to getting just the piece of Coast

Highway it needs to bring the community’s Vision 2004 plan into sharp

focus.

City leaders have been able to move forward on long-standing

negotiations with state highway officials to secure a section of East

Coast Highway for beautification, thanks in part to the efforts of

Assemblyman John Campbell.

As the discussions stand now, Newport Beach planners hope to nail

down the transfer of 3.3 miles of the historic state highway from the

California Department of Transportation to the city by early next

year.

City leaders want to incorporate the section of highway into the

Vision 2004 program, a $12-million package of roadway, landscaping

and other improvements to the Corona del Mar village.

“I’ve always thought Corona del Mar is a place of special charm,”

Campbell said Friday. “I think the Vision 2004 plan is spectacular.”

A framed poster of the plan hangs on a wall of his district

office, Campbell said.

The section of the highway from Newport Coast Drive to Jamboree

Road could be delivered to the city only after Campbell successfully

added a paragraph of legislation, also known as a “rider,” to a state

transportation bill last year.

“If Assemblyman Campbell didn’t put the effort out, we wouldn’t

have gotten as far,” Planning Commissioner Ed Selich said. “It gave

us the ability to sit down with the local Caltrans people and get an

agreement.”

Campbell offered his legislative help about a year ago. The

assemblyman, who represents the area in his 70th Assembly District,

added the legislation to Senate Bill 290 last year.

The bill authorized Caltrans to relinquish the strip of highway.

Before the bill, Caltrans had hoped to unload all of East Coast

Highway and West Coast Highway between the Laguna Beach and

Huntington Beach borders.

City leaders rejected that proposal, wanting just a mile-long

stretch through Corona del Mar.

Talks hit another roadblock in March, when Caltrans said it would

give the city the Newport Coast section of East Coast Highway, since

the bill said the agency could hand over the section from Corona del

Mar to the “southern city limits.”

Of course, those limits changed in January, when Newport Beach

annexed Newport Coast.

Campbell again offered his aid, writing a March 12 letter to

Caltrans Director Jeff Morales.

“The language was drafted to give some flexibility to negotiators,

however, the Legislature intended for those negotiations to focus on

an area in Corona del Mar,” Campbell wrote in the letter.

Regional Caltrans officials now are putting together an agreement

to map out the handover, spokesman Albert Miranda said.

“Caltrans is developing a document for the city to review as part

of the negotiations that will return the existing roadway to a state

of good repair before it’s relinquished,” Miranda said.

Selich has been negotiating with Caltrans to flesh out the details

of the handover, including how much money the agency will give to

cover maintenance and construction costs.

A preliminary deal should be in place, if all goes well, within 30

days, Selich said. The City Council is expected to consider a final

deal in October.