City growth talk of chamber

Alicia Robinson

Local business leaders will hear from Newport Beach Mayor Tod

Ridgeway today about how the city has grown and changed, mostly for

the better.

Ridgeway will deliver a state of the city address at the annual

meeting of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce this morning at the

Newport Beach Radisson Hotel.

Since Ridgeway was elected to City Council in 1998, the city has

grown geographically and its revenues have increased, he said

Wednesday. His priorities have not changed since he gave a state of

the city speech as mayor in 2002, when he went on the offensive to

prevent Greenlight, the city’s slow-growth law, from becoming an

anti-development force.

“I wasn’t issuing a challenge,” Ridgeway said. “I just said some

development is good and we need to look at growth in this city to

make sure that we remain financially soluble.”

The speech also will touch on a recent priority for the city --

sphere issues. Newport Beach officials are looking at increasing the

city’s say in controlling Orange County-owned facilities including

the Coyote Canyon landfill and John Wayne Airport.

“We’ve really now evolved to [where] we want to have a proprietary

role, that is, a co-ownership with the county that allows us to have

some degree of control over the footprint, land use and air issues

out [at John Wayne Airport],” Ridgeway said.

A number of longtime chamber members and volunteers will be

honored at the meeting, as well. Chamber President Richard Luehrs

said 25 businesses such as Nabers Pontiac GMC Buick Cadillac and

Theodore Robins Ford, which aren’t in Newport Beach but have

supported its chamber of commerce for years, will be recognized for

their work.

The chamber also will elect five new members to the board of

directors to replace five whose terms expire this year.