The view of Newport Harbor and...

The view of Newport Harbor and the Balboa Pavilion from Phil

Arst’s home in Broadmoor Hills hasn’t changed much since he moved in

about 25 years ago. And, with any luck and the existence of the

Greenlight law that sends voters to the ballot on large developments,

it won’t change in the next 25 years.

Arst and his fellow Greenlight Committee members set out to ensure

that voters could second-guess City Council decisions on large

developments back in 2000. Since then, one development, the expansion

of Koll Center, failed at the polls. Others have decided against even

trying.

In the latest election, in November, Greenlight put up four

candidates for the four open seats. One, Dick Nichols, succeeded,

joining fellow Greenlight Councilman John Heffernan. Much is unknown

about the committee’s future or whether it is even needed now that

the Greenlight law is on the books.

On Friday, City Editor James Meier visited Arst’s Newport home to

discuss the group and his involvement in it, as well as the future of

Newport Beach.

Greenlight has succeeded much since its inception in 2000. It has

obviously slowed growth in Newport Beach and, at times, dissuaded

developers from even trying. What’s next for the Greenlight

Committee?

We think, with one exception, the city’s growth is in a manageable

state because the voters can decide. Greenlight’s not no-growth, nor

slow-growth. It’s, let the voters decide.

The one exception is, the City Council is formulating a new

general plan update now, and what we’ve seen so far, and our fear, is

that it will write into that new update the kinds of projects that

voters have rejected in the past, that we got stopped.

So will the committee continue to fight development like that?

We think that’s the mechanism to get these developments into the

city. Understand, you talk about fighting development. Greenlight’s

goal and vision is to preserve the quality of life of the residents

and maintain the quality and beach/bay character of the city.

Developments are just one aspect of that. That’s where we started,

but hotels on the waterfront are a big concern because they take away

our precious natural resource. And the airport, of course.

So it’s not only traffic. Traffic is a metric used to judge

projects.

Were you disappointed that only one of Greenlight’s four

candidates were elected in the November City Council election?

Well, yes. On the one hand, we doubled the number of [Greenlight]

residents on the council. We feel a sleazy campaign was conducted and

we, as amateurs, couldn’t match the money and political spin that hit

us. We think we got a respectable portion of the vote, so we were

still a factor on specific issues.

Will you run more candidates in 2004?

The present plan is to do that, but it’s wide open. We first have

to find suitable candidates. And we have to see how the present

council people are behaving.

Will you ever run for City Council again?

I have in the past [1996], but have no thoughts for the future.

What has kept you so involved in Greenlight since its birth?

Maybe I’m answering this a little bit broadly, but I think Newport

Beach is great because its residents have banded together to preserve

the quality of the city. We would have two freeways bisecting

Newport. We would have the [Newport] Dunes hotel. The Back Bay would

have developed into a resort, and our bluff views would be gone.

When we found 10 projects on the drawing board in 1999, we banded

together again and formed Greenlight to try to keep the quality of

life up in the city. Now, I might say my motto is “I’d rather be home

watching ‘Jeopardy,’” and what’s kept me going is that someone has to

do it and take their turn in preserving the city. We have a number of

new recruits, younger people, and we hope they’ll be carrying on:

Rick Taylor, Tom Billings, Joe Gleason.

I should say that, while I’m the spokesman of Greenlight, it

really is Jean Watt, Evelyn Hart, Tom Hyans and Allan Beek and

myself. These people have a background of over 20 and 30 years of

working as volunteers to maintain the quality of the city. None of us

have financial interests in any city activities.

What will Newport Beach look like in 20 years?

Unless the citizens band together, it will be a congested

metropolitan business area. It will require a struggle like the

freeway fight to keep the city healthy and livable and an

environmental treasure.

Now, if you had it your way, what would Newport look like in 20

years?

Much the same. However, I would concentrate on redeveloping our

lagging business districts. We, as Greenlight, support our local

small businesses. They’re hemmed in by lack of parking, poor access,

and I would hope to see parts of the city redeveloped rather than the

city becoming a high-rise, high-density business center.

Will your view of the harbor remain intact?

My view is preserved because of two reasons. One, my association

strictly regulates building and tree heights on private property

within the association. Two, the city’s G-1 Tree Maintenance Policy

that our associations helped write give us the power to request that

city trees be trimmed in height if we pay for the labor.

A big concern in view areas throughout the city -- Corona del Mar,

Harbor View, Eastbluff , Dover Shores, etc. -- is that the newly

created arbor society wants to prohibit any height reductions as

their way to “preserve” the trees. This will be a huge controversy in

the near future because homeowners are not going to give up their

$300,000 to $500,000 views to please the tree people.

A basic point is that this is a beach/bay ocean community. The

arbor society people want Newport to be “Tree City USA.” That is

appropriate for an inland city, but not Newport. This is not a

Greenlight issue, so the battle will be by associations with view

homes.

Any final thoughts?

I think the residents and City Council should be able to get along

to work together. Our concern is that we have not had representative

government, and it’s forced volunteer, grass-root groups like

ourselves to question and even combat actions of the

developer-dominated City Council. I would hope to see representative

government restored and I would hope to go back to watching

“Jeopardy” at night.