Money boosts boardwalk plan

Paul Clinton

The city received an additional $780,000 from an oil-spill

settlement Thursday to build a boardwalk along the Back Bay’s western

edge.

The city wanted to replace a series of makeshift trails

criss-crossing through the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve.

Those trails are considered illegal, since the land has been set

aside as damaged habitat, Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said.

“We would like to replace some of those trails with a more

structured boardwalk plan so people could get closer to the bay but

not harm the habitat,” Kiff said.

Preliminary drawings for the project show one long walkway snaking

along Back Bay’s western edge. The city would also install at least

three viewing platforms that would extend into the middle of the

estuary. The six-member board of the trust overseeing the settlement

money unanimously handed the city the funds, which come from Orange

County’s share of the $18.1 million paid out in the 1999 American

Trader settlement. That group is composed of representatives of

Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, the county, the California Coastal

Commission, the Department of Fish and Game and California State

Parks.

It handed the city the $786,340 slice of funding initially given

to the county.

Newport Beach officials also plan to pursue state grant money to

round out the funding for the $3.4-million boardwalk project, which

cannot be started until the city completes an environmental review

and secures approval from a string of agencies.

The gift comes with a requirement that the city nail down those

approvals within one year, Kiff said.

Other money could be secured from the Wildlife Conservation Board,

which hands out money from Proposition 40, the resources bond that

passed last year, Kiff said.

In 1990, the American Trader tanker ran aground offshore of

Huntington Beach, spilling 400,000 gallons of oil along the shoreline

and causing the worst environmental disaster in Orange County

history.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment and politics. He may be

reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at paul.clinton@latimes.com.