Cycle show may get go-ahead

June Casagrande

A motorcycle show that almost was, then almost wasn’t, now might be.

The City Council will consider tonight whether to grant a permit

that city staff members revoked after they learned that this

weekend’s motorcycle expo at the Newport Dunes would include a

“bikini show,” high-speed motorcycle events and other events city

staff worried could create noise and other nuisances.

In an 11th-hour attempt to reach a compromise, city staff

announced Monday that they had come up with some conditions that

would protect neighbors and still let the show go on.

“I think we have come up with a series of conditions that will be

acceptable to everyone involved,” City Manager Homer Bludau said

Monday. “I think all sides are going to be protected.”

City officials were most concerned with noise affecting residents

of Dover Shores and Sea Island. They also worried about disrupting

local wildlife habitats, Bludau said. To cover those bases, staff is

adding conditions to the event permit that ensure extensive security

is on site and that the Back Bay trails are kept off limits to

motorcycles.

The bikini show wasn’t going to happen anyway, Newport Dunes

Waterfront Resort General Manager Andrew Theodorou said.

“We’re a family park,” Theodorou said. “We were never going to let

that be part of the plan.”

On April 15, the city approved the request from the Dunes and show

organizer Primedia to put on what Theodorou described as “an

exhibition, not a rally, as some members of the community perceived.”

But soon after, city staff said, they thought they had reason to

question that.

“During the month of May, staff received information that the

event included a ‘bikini show’ or ‘trophy girl contest,’ ‘freestyle

jumpers’ and a ‘dyno-cam’ -- equipment that allows a motorcycle owner

to determine the horsepower generated by the vehicle at very high

[revolutions per minute],” Recreation and Senior Services Director

Marie Knight wrote in a report to the City Council.

Staff revoked the permit.

The event’s planners appealed, and the city manager’s office came

up with the safeguards that seemed to satisfy the parties involved.

Theodorou said he was pleased with the compromise. Bludau

predicted that the council would approve the permit request tonight.

* 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.