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.