Boardwalk on track for January decision

June Casagrande

A popular plan to build a boardwalk in the Back Bay could be up

for a City Council vote by the end of the month.

The boardwalk is designed to let nature lovers enjoy one of the

city’s and county’s most stunning natural resources without damaging

it. The walkway would go up and down the bluffs at different points,

allowing people access to the water in certain areas.

“If it’s just on the top of the bluffs, it’s not going to work,”

City Councilman Tod Ridgeway said Tuesday during a council study

session, noting that nature lovers would venture off the boardwalk to

get near the water at the base of the bluffs.

The boardwalk would be built in concert with a project to restore

animal habitats in the Back Bay that are currently damaged or

endangered by foot traffic off the approved nature paths.

“Will a boardwalk really contain people and keep them on the right

path? I think it will if it gets close enough to the water and it

contains an educational component that explains the habitat to

people,” Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff told the City Councilmen

during the study session presentation.

Kiff said that the matter will come before council members on an

upcoming agenda, perhaps as soon as their Jan. 28 meeting.

The roughly $4-million project would be paid for in part with

about $800,000 from Orange County funds from the American Trader Oil

Spill Settlement and up to $4 million in state funds, mainly from

Proposition 40, but also possibly from propositions 12, 13 and 50,

with help from the Wildlife Conservation Board of the state

Department of Fish and Game.

The Back Bay is the natural home for endangered birds the clapper

rail and the least tern, which have been nudged out by human

encroachment.

“We’re looking forward to getting these projects done,” said Jack

Keating, president of the Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.