Resort foes set for second vote

Those who led fight against Marinapark hotel last year say proposal would be defeated again.If a resort proposed for Newport Beach’s Marinapark property goes to the ballot a second time, hotel designer Stephen Sutherland may be on his own for the expected battle to come.

Sutherland planned a 110-room hotel for the city-owned beachfront property, but voters in November 2004 vetoed Measure L, a change in the city’s general plan that was needed to build the hotel.

Earlier this month Sutherland filed a claim against the city demanding more time to work on the resort. He believes he still has 18 months left on contracts with the city to develop the resort, and he plans to seek another public vote.

But a second ballot issue would face much the same opposition as the first, and earlier support for Sutherland may have evaporated.

Community group Protect Our Parks, which led the charge against Measure L, would likely resume the fight.

“We already said no,” Protect Our Parks spokesman Tom Billings said. “Nothing’s changed as far as Protect Our Parks and the sentiment in the public.”

To Billings, the November vote -- 66.6% against changing the general plan -- was decisive, and he said public support has been strong for his group’s proposal for the property. It includes an aquatic center, community center, six to eight slips for visiting boats, and public beach and grassy areas.

The proposal was one of several presented to an ad hoc committee in recent months; another proposal is for a deep-water marina with yacht berths and a dock for visiting boats. The City Council has not voted on what to do with the Marinapark property.

Sutherland has said voters will support his resort plan if they know all the facts, but resident Louise Fundenberg said she isn’t convinced.

“I still don’t think the voters will go for it,” she said.

Fundenberg is president of the Central Newport Beach Community Assn. and was on the ad hoc committee that looked at ideas for Marinapark after the defeat of Measure L. She opposed the resort the first time, and if it came to another vote, she said, “I would campaign my hardest to see that it never took place.”

It’s questionable whether Sutherland would have support from the city. Councilman Don Webb -- one of three council members who wrote the ballot argument against Measure L -- said he believes the voters already have spoken, and they said they wanted a park.

“I just don’t quite understand why [Sutherland] thinks that it would succeed if it were voted on again,” Webb said.

Even Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who helped write the ballot argument in favor of the general plan change for the resort, said a second vote would be “a waste of time and effort” and would come out the same way as the first vote.

“I’m not in support of it, period,” he said.

But Sutherland said Monday he’s not daunted by the opposition. He believes voters were misled in the 2004 campaign to believe the land already was primarily parkland and would remain so if Measure L was defeated. Only a small portion of the area is now used as a park.

Some of the people who are opposing him now “are the same people that promised voters it would be preserved as parkland forever,” Sutherland said.

Since the election, people have told him they’d have supported the hotel plan if they’d known a marina for yachts would be proposed instead, he said.

“All I’m saying is there should be a vote where everything is on the table,” 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.

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