Consider all the city hall options

First, the Daily Pilot should consider interviewing each City Council

member regarding his or her position on the proposed city hall. If

the paper believes, as your recent editorial indicates, that council

members should be the voting authority on this project, then as

residents, we deserve to understand the position of each City Council

member on the key project aspects.

Regarding the review of schematics on the Sept. 27 City Council

meeting agenda (Item No. 20), at 1 a.m. the City Council reviewed two

possible schematics for the proposed civic center complex at the

existing Newport Beach City Hall location, which includes 0.62 acres

for a new fire station with three bays. The schematics reflect in

part efforts to find the best solution for the fire station.

Fire Chief Tim Riley said that ideally a fire station with three

bays, with potential use as an emergency operations center, would

generally be on about 1.2 acres. He also stated that it is imperative

to have a fire station at or near the current location in order to

provide appropriate response times to residents, businesses and

beachgoers, which is a point I can agree with.

What was clear is that the fire station is being shoehorned into

an unsuitable location and that compromises are being made to the

proposed civic center complex design in order to accommodate the

three uses -- City Hall, parking structure and fire station. As

Councilman Don Webb pointed out, the proposed basic plan creates a

four-story concrete wall of buildings, with all three structures

fronting 32nd Street. Is this the world class design that residents

and businesses want and expect for Newport Beach?

So this begs the following questions.

Why have the City Council and members of the city staff dismissed

any serious study of alternate sites for one or more of the project’s

pieces? And if the current site is the only option, my reading of the

feelings of the general plan advisory committee shows a clear

willingness to support more multi-use development and an interest in

redevelopment of the entire Lido area, so how about a civic center

complex combined with other revenue generating uses, which could

support purchase of other property for a fire station?

Do the residents and City Council really want a fire station that

is jury-rigged onto a site 50% the size of an optimum site? Would any

of us accept a 50% solution in our business lives for a site that may

be designated as an emergency operations center? How do you explain

that to your risk managers and employees?

Would any property owners near City Hall be willing to sell land

to the city for a fire station? Yes, property in the City Hall area,

and the areas adjacent to Newport Pier, is at a premium. But many of

the commercial properties, especially the strip malls, appear in

serious need of refurbishment. Wouldn’t some of those property owners

be interested in selling? If the city has more than sufficient funds

for the project, as was presented last night, then it merits

evaluation.

I am not a fan of eminent domain, so perish the thought, but in

light of the recent Supreme Court decision in the case from

Connecticut (Kelo vs. New London) that expanded scope of eminent

domain to foster economic development, perhaps the city could condemn

a commercial property for the fire station and build more revenue

generating commercial or residential property on the current City

Hall site. The point is that all options to create the best solutions

should be seriously considered, rather than ignored or steamrolled

over, just so that we can come to a vote in October, and begin

demolition in May 2006, which is the current timeline under

consideration.

* LAURA CURRAN is a resident of Newport Beach.