Center future now up in air

Alicia Robinson

If you build it, they might come -- but show them how big it’s going

to be, and they might not even let you build it in the first place.

Many thought a community center planned for Newport Coast was a

slam dunk, but a set of “story poles” showing the future height of

the 17,000-square-foot center has raised a ruckus among residents.

Building a community center at the corner of Newport Coast Drive

and San Joaquin Hills Road was one of Newport Beach’s

responsibilities in a 2001 agreement to annex Newport Coast.

To pay for the community center, the city set aside $7 million in

Newport Coast tax money from a service agreement with the Irvine

Ranch Water District. The center would include a gymnasium and public

meeting rooms, but a library was cut from the plans because it

wouldn’t fit into the budget.

The Newport Beach City Council and the Newport Coast Advisory

Committee -- which represents residents -- in April solved a dispute

over how much parking the center should offer, but now conflict has

arisen over whether to build the center at all.

The city in late June put up story poles illustrating the

building’s dimensions, which prompted some residents to complain they

haven’t had enough input on the project.

“This whole thing got pushed through without anybody really having

a say in the matter,” said Sherri Fryer, who lives in the Tesoro

subdivision, which overlooks the community center site. “ ... People

didn’t even know that there’s no library now, as originally

promised.”

Residents are objecting because the center will take up about a

third of what is now a large park, and it will draw traffic to an

already packed intersection of two major arterial roads, she said.

“Part of the allure of Newport Coast is driving down Newport Coast

Drive and looking at all that open space,” Fryer said.

“There’s not much of that left.”

Fryer and other residents have been gathering signatures and

urging people to come to a council study session on the community

center Tuesday.

Some even want to be allowed to vote on the project.

Advisory committee member Al Willinger said the committee already

surveyed the residents, and there’s nothing new in the latest outcry

-- some Tesoro residents have opposed the project from the outset.

The center will interfere with a few homeowners’ views, but the

scarcity of suitable land in Newport Coast makes it impossible to

build something that doesn’t affect anyone, he said.

Most residents of Newport Coast support the project, including the

25 homeowners associations in the area, Willinger said.

“We’re not aware of any homeowners association that has taken a

position in opposition to the center,” and several have officially

endorsed it, he said.

The dispute puts newly minted Mayor John Heffernan in an

interesting, albeit powerless, position.

Part of Newport Coast, including the community center site, is in

his council district.

But Heffernan’s hands are tied because under the annexation

agreement, the advisory committee has the power to approve the

community center design or veto the project.

He’s not surprised that he’s been getting several e-mails a day

about the project.

What remains to be seen is whether the advisory committee will see

the opposition as significant enough to reconsider the project,

Heffernan said.

“I guess the question would be who’s going to push the hardest,”

Heffernan said.

The project is already behind schedule -- building was supposed to

begin about a year ago -- and the more time passes, the more the cost

to construct the community center climbs.

At some point, the project will bust its $7 million budget, which

could throw the terms of the annexation agreement into question, said

Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.

“What I’ve tried to tell the residents in opposition is I don’t

think anything’s a done deal until the bulldozers come, mostly

because of this budget issue,” he said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.