Newport follows soft stance to a letter

Alicia Robinson

City officials are taking a kinder, gentler approach when sharing

their concerns with Irvine about a large, new development planned

near the cities’ border.

Newport Beach council members’ response to Irvine’s Central Park

project is indicative of the cities’ newfound cooperation.

The City Council voted this week to send Irvine officials a letter

about Central Park from the Environmental Quality Affairs Committee,

a 23-member group of Newport Beach residents and environmental

experts.

The committee is concerned about traffic, urban runoff and a

burden on Newport Beach parks from the Central Park project, a

mixed-use development with 1,380 housing units and more than 109,000

square feet of office and retail space. A 10-page report from the

committee details what it sees as deficiencies in an environmental

impact report on Central Park, and calls for a new one.

Newport Beach City Council members share some of those worries,

but they’re soft-pedaling their concerns to Irvine rather than taking

the offensive.

“We, prior to the last six [or] eight months, have not been

responding to the multiple projects being built along our border,”

Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway said.

In January, the City Council sent a letter to Irvine and the

developer of another project, known as the Scholle development,

asking for a new environmental analysis. It got results, Newport

Beach Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood said.

“That was part of what has led to the formation of the Newport

Beach-Irvine borders committee,” Wood said, referring to a

cooperative group the cities have talked about forming. Newport Beach

City Council appointed members to the committee April 13.

Newport officials hope to work through their concerns on the

Central Park project with the city of Irvine, so the letter they sent

was less forceful than the Scholle project letter.

“The tone is clearly different and the cover letter says, ‘Let’s

get together as soon as possible,’” Ridgeway said.

It’s unclear how quickly the borders committee will get rolling.

Ridgeway said Irvine Mayor Larry Agran vowed to take action on the

matter when the two met last week. Irvine City Council members could

not be reached for comment Thursday.

How Irvine will respond to Newport Beach’s most recent letter also

remains to be seen.

“I think some of it depends on how things go with the borders

committee and if council members are able to make progress on bigger

issues,” Wood said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.