Newport speaks on Pacific City
June Casagrande
Newport Beach is putting in its two cents in on a project planned for
Huntington Beach.
The Newport City Council voted 7 to 0 Tuesday night to chime in on
the environmental study for the Pacific City project, saying that the
study and the development raise a number of concerns for Newport.
“I’m glad to see the city is making our position known,”
Councilman Steven Rosansky said.
The biggest concern is traffic. The 31.5-acre complex of
commercial, retail, residential, office and restaurant space, which
includes 400 hotel rooms and 516 condominiums, will add about 3,000
car trips a day to Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. Some of
this traffic is sure to cross over into Newport, and Newport leaders
want the study to take a closer look at exactly how much, Newport
officials say.
A major sticking point between the two cities has to do with the
19th Street bridge. The environmental study considers traffic
increases if the bridge is built, but doesn’t look at what happens if
it’s not and what that could then mean to Coast Highway in Newport.
“Huntington Beach analyzed it as if the bridge were there,”
Councilman Tod Ridgeway said. “ We want them to analyze it as if
there were not a bridge because they didn’t want the bridge in the
first place. I think that they’ll come up with substantially
different answers.”
Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood explained that
it’s customary for the city to offer comments on large projects that
could directly affect the city.
“This project looked like it had great possibility to have impacts
on Newport Beach, so we did refer it to [the Environmental Quality
Affairs Committee],” Wood said.
That committee examined the environmental study on the Pacific
City project and wrote the comments that the Newport Beach City
Council will sign off on as their own. Besides traffic, Newport
Beach’s comments also question whether the environmental study
adequately considers the project’s possible effects on air and water
quality. For example, Newport Beach is also taking the liberty of
correcting projected population figures in the document, and
suggesting that the developer use porous pavement whenever possible
in order to prevent runoff into the ocean.
Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Debbie Cook said that all
comments on the environmental report will be taken into
consideration.
“Those are perfectly legitimate concerns for Newport Beach, and
all concerns on the [environmental report] will be addressed,” Cook
said. “Whether they’re addressed to their satisfaction is a different
matter.”
* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport for
Times Community News. She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by
e-mail at june.casagrande@latimes.com.
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