Trees will soon return to peninsula

June Casagrande

The city will wrap up the $2.8-million second phase of Balboa Village

improvements this month, including replacing the Main Street ficus

trees, but it is still waiting for funding for the next round of

work.

Sometime around Wednesday, workers will finish up most of the

sidewalk resurfacing along Main Street and adjacent streets.

The next week, workers will plant 32 coral gum trees along Main

Street from Pier Plaza to the Balboa Pavilion. The trees will replace

the 24 ficus trees whose removal last fall was the final word in a

long-running battle over whether to keep the trees.

The coral gum trees, which the city bought about a year ago and

have been growing in their boxes ever since, are now between 8 and 8

1/2 feet tall and span about 4 feet.

“We’re told that once they’re in the ground, we’ll probably see a

growth spurt really soon,” said Bob Stein, the city’s principal

engineer on the renovations.

The city and the Peninsula Point Homeowners Assn. have selected a

design for the decorative flower pots that will line Main Street.

Those 32-inch-high flower pots, along with ornamental benches, will

probably be installed in six to eight weeks.

Repaving of the streets and sidewalks include blue and white

wave-pattern lithocrete along Oceanfront and in crosswalks on Main,

Palm and Washington streets.

“Things are really looking nice down there already,” said Steve

Badum, public works director for the city.

Part of phase three will be funded by the Orange County Sanitation

District because the district plans to tear up a portion of Balboa

Boulevard to removing an aging sewer pump station underground at A

Street.

The district will install an above-ground station at the northeast

corner of that intersection -- a roughly 25-foot by 25-foot facility

topped with a tower that reaches about 26 feet high. As part of that

process, the district will pay for about $225,000 of the estimated

$250,000 cost to repave that section of Balboa Boulevard. That work

is expected to begin in February.

The remainder of phase three has yet to be funded. Staff will

request the $1.5 million be paid for out of the city’s 2004-05

budget. That work, when and if it’s funded, will include street and

sidewalk renovations on Palm Street and Washington Street north of

Balboa Boulevard and on Bay Avenue.

Including the $3.8-million phase one that was completed last year,

the cost of village improvements will come to about $8.1 million.

* 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.