Newport Beach adopts new council districts

June Casagrande

Old Corona del Mar will stay in one City Council district, but

Newport Coast and Newport Ridge were not as lucky.

After a long and painful process of considering ways to balance

out the city’s lopsided elections districts, the council on Tuesday

approved a plan as the lesser of two evils.

Old Corona del Mar will remain in Dick Nichols’ District 6, while

the Irvine Terrace area will move out of District 6 and into Steve

Bromberg’s District 5. Newport Ridge will remain in John Heffernan’s

District 7, but the remainder of Newport Coast will now be part of

Nichols’ district.

Bonita Canyon and the One Ford Road neighborhood will now be

represented by Gary Adams instead of Bromberg.

Newport Coast Advisory Committee member Al Willinger asked the

council to keep his area as one unit.

“We have a goal to develop a sense of community,” Willinger said.

“We would like all of the Newport Coast -- Newport Coast and Newport

Ridge together -- to be in one district.”

The council unanimously approved a scenario to make the split.

“I think this is the viable solution given the alternatives,”

Heffernan said.

A second alternative would have kept most of Newport Coast and

Newport Ridge together, but would have carved out an awkward slice of

land surrounding Big Canyon Reservoir to add to the Corona del Mar

district.

The city had to redraw its districts because the 2002 addition of

Newport Coast nearly doubled District 7. According to city rules, the

council districts should have roughly the same number of people.

The new boundaries were drawn based on the projection that West

Santa Ana Heights and other nearby areas will be incorporated into

the city, though that annexation remains uncertain.

This is not a prediction or a commitment to annexing, Bromberg

said. The approach was chosen to make council redistricting easier

and more logical, he said. If the area is not annexed, the city might

have to adjust the new districts.

The new districts will go into effect July 10 and will each contain 11,000 to 12,000 people.

“The only things that change for anyone are district boundaries

and possibly your representative,” Bromberg said. “We were very

sensitive to the concerns of all the residents. This was just the

most equitable way to do it.”

* 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.