A whole lot to consider

Michael Miller

More than 100 residents packed the portable conference room at

Newport Harbor High School on Tuesday night as students, church

members and neighbors voiced their opinions about St. Andrew’s

Presbyterian Church’s proposal to expand the school’s parking lot.

At the meeting, which was set up and moderated by the high

school’s Student Political Action Committee, two sides made

presentations: one a coalition of neighbors, the other a group of

members from the St. Andrew’s Building Committee.

After the presentations, audience members wrote questions on cards

and submitted them anonymously to both sides.

Last month, St. Andrew’s submitted a $3.5 million proposal to the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District offering to expand the school’s

parking lot by 80 spaces and renovate some of the campus’ old

maintenance buildings. In exchange, the church would be able to share

parking with the high school for at least 30 years.

During the 90-minute meeting, members of the church building

committee upheld the proposal as a win-win situation for the school

and the neighboring community. Members of the two neighborhood

groups, however, argued that the parking agreement would make the

traffic problems worse and cause additional woes in terms of noise

and pollution.

Don Krotee, the president of the Newport Heights Improvement

Assn., likened the St. Andrew’s proposal to “an iceberg,” arguing

that “the top part is beautiful, but we’re a little concerned about

what’s below the surface.”

The St. Andrew’s Building Committee, in its presentation, argued

that the added parking spaces would remove cars from the street and

prevent churchgoers from having to park in the nearby neighborhood.

Committee member Gary McKitterick noted that the church and school

had already shared the Newport Harbor parking lot for years.

“St. Andrew’s has been around since 1950,” McKitterick said. “It’s

been using that parking lot all that time. We’re formalizing an

agreement that already exists.”

After each side had made an opening presentation, Action Committee

members read questions that audience members had submitted. One

attendee asked the neighborhood coalition how it would go about

improving the parking problem at Newport Harbor.

Carmack replied that attorney Michael Lawler had started talks

with the Coronado apartment complex across the street about donating

parking spaces to the school.

Lawler later said that he had met with Coronado management Tuesday

and that the talks were “conceptual at this point.”

After the forum, Action Committee co-president Blaise Brunda said

his group would vote again on the parking agreement at its April 11

meeting, then share its thoughts with the district board the

following day.

“We did a vote before March 8, but it was like a straw poll to see

the Action Committee’s position,” said member Harrison Brown,

referring to an earlier district board meeting. “At the time, we

weren’t really well informed, and we see ourselves as a moderator

between the church and the community.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.