Keep options open for Peninsula land By...

Keep options open for Peninsula land

By way of introduction, I have called Newport Beach my home for 40

years. I was co-owner and president of the Balboa Bay Club for many

years (city-owned land if you didn’t know already). I served twice as

president of the chamber of commerce, was president of the Coast

Assn. and more recently was a member of the Harbor Committee of

Newport Beach. I was named Citizen of the Year in 1975.

The Marinapark issue has raised local emotions to a record level,

and for just cause. However, all concerned have missed the point, in

my opinion.

No one would deny that the keystone to the uniqueness of Newport

Beach is our harbor. It is the anchor that makes our real estate

among the most valuable in the country. People want to live here.

People want to preserve the waterfront ambience and to enjoy all the

pleasures our harbor affords us. The advocates of Measure L -- which

if approved in November would allow for the development of a resort

in the Marinapark area -- have deliberately painted the picture that

if we don’t vote for the hotel the city will put in boat ramps with

traffic, trailers and noise. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This isn’t a vote on a hotel or something else. A “No” vote simply

votes against doing the specific timeshare hotel proposed. It leaves

all of our other options open.

Allan Beek’s group, Stop Polluting Our Newport, is suing the city,

claiming an inadequate environmental impact report. For once in

almost 40 years, I agree with them. The environmental report is

grossly inadequate in that it offered virtually no study of the

long-term needs to support the needs or other options for our harbor

as an alternative usage. Nor has the city undertaken such a critical

study. The Harbor Commission is a start, if they are given the real

core task. The question is: what support do we need to provide space

in the future for marine services that are being priced out of

Newport Beach by ever-increasing land costs? Our entire mooring

fields of long-term boaters are completely without landside support.

I’m not proposing anything specific because I don’t know the right

answer. I do know that no one else does either. I do know that if

Measure L wins, we are giving away our last bit of waterfront parcel

that we have. If we were back a few years and voted on Beacon Bay

(city-owned land), would we have allowed luxurious homes there? Would

we have leased the Balboa Bay Club property for $48,000 per year?

My point is that we need to keep our options open until we are

really sure that a hotel in this location is the very best usage for

the last remaining major piece of waterfront property that we, the

public, own. We also need to really understand what we need to

protect our crown jewel, our harbor.

Keep our options open. Vote no on “L.”

DICK STEVENS

Newport Beach

Public and private

fusion is a good deal

I’m going to vote yes on Measure L, the ballot measure that would

allow the Marinapark resort to be built. I’m a Republican. I believe

in private enterprise. I believe in public-private partnerships.

Measure L is an ideal public-private partnership. It allows a

small resort to be built on city property that is currently used as a

mobile home park. The state says the mobile homes have to be removed

because it is tidelands. The resort will provide the funds to build

some very nice public facilities. Everything else will be public.

Since the resort is on city property, it will pay taxes and lease

fees to support the city’s general fund.

Balboa Peninsula gets a beautiful new asset that creates no new

traffic. Newport Beach gets a lot of money for the use of the city

property. We all get the benefit of an improved area of our city.

That’s using city property and private enterprise the way it works

for all of us.

DOUGLAS F. GRETH

Newport Beach

A luxury resort for

such a needy city?

Regarding the proposal to build the Marinapark resort, in the end,

the question is this: Are we so impoverished that we must cede our

public park land for private development and private profit?

ANDY LINGLE

Newport Beach