Marina or park?

What residents voted on last November didn’t guarantee a future park if they voted no. The measure merely asked whether to change the city’s general plan to allow a resort.Other suggestions for park use:

* City parks, beaches and recreation commission: small boat launch ramp; green space, tot lot and swimming beach; one basketball and four tennis courts; two-story community center with space for Girl Scouts; some commercial/marina space

* Resident Craig Rager: most of plan resembles other park plans, with public green space and beach; adds temporary bleachers during Christmas boat parade; adds small marina for visiting boats

* Balboa Peninsula Point Assn.: keeps grassy area, tot lot and swimming beach; keeps existing tennis courts and Girl Scout house

* Businessmen Mike Palitz and Darryl Griff: retains and refurbishes 35 mobile homes for overnight rental; keeps public beach and green space; adds a community swimming pool, four tennis courts, small number of boats slips

* Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce marine committee: ship yard; 46 boat slips; grassy strip, dog run, benches; launch area; 800-foot public dock; Girl Scout builg; marine retail, restaurant; tot lot; service dock with crane

Balboa Aquatic Park

Designed by Newport Beach harbor commission

* Adds a public pier, marina with long dock and about 50 large boat slips, a city service dock and boat hoist

* Includes aquatic center, small boat launch area and boat storage for public sailing programs

* Keeps swimming beach, tennis and basketball courts, and creates combination Girl Scout facility and community center

* Parking for 135 cars

* Estimated cost $12.9 million; projected annual revenue $1.5 million

Marinapark resort

Designed by Stephen Sutherland

[Note: the council is not currently considering Sutherland’s proposal, which is the subject of a claim he filed against the city]

* Would add a 110-room resort composed of one- and two-story villas, a restaurant, bar, ballroom and spa

* Maintains public beach; rebuilds Girl Scout house, tennis courts, and tot lot and adds bay-front walkway for public use

* Estimates cost $35 million in private investment; projected annual revenue after several years of operation about $2.2 million

Window to the Bay plan Designed by Protect Our Parks

* Adds community center, bigger tot lot, lawn area with walking paths

* Replaces and upgrades Girl Scout house

* Keeps public beach and basketball courts

* Parking for 120 cars

* Estimated cost $9.4 million, with added costs for community center and renovation of Girl Scout house

Nearly a year after Newport Beach voters rejected a measure to allow a resort on public property at Marinapark, city officials still haven’t decided what to do with the land.

The City Council will be presented with eight proposals, though several are variations on two major themes: a landscaped lawn with walkways, an aquatic center and small boat launch; or a smaller public area at the edges of a marina with docks for large boats. A newer proposal would refurbish some of the mobile homes now on the property for overnight rentals.

And now, to complicate matters, hotel designer Stephen Sutherland wants to revive his proposal for a 110-room resort -- the one voters essentially rejected in November 2004.

Resort plan aside, the council likely will decide whether to use one of the other proposals or combine elements from several of them. Most of the choices would preserve some public beach space and a Girl Scout house on the property, and most would provide a small boat launching area. The major difference among the plans is that some devote space to a marina for large boats.

“The way I interpret it, boating is definitely a marine recreational use,” City Councilman Don Webb said. “Even the title of the park itself, where you say ‘Marinapark,’ would indicate that you can have a park with a marina in it.”

A voter mandate

Some activists believe that’s flat-out wrong. They say voters clearly indicated the land should become a park, and not one that’s dominated by a yacht marina for private use.

“If you ask anybody who voted no on [Measure] L what they voted for, they would say, ‘Oh, for that to be a park,’” said Tom Billings, Protect Our Parks spokesman, who led the opposition to the resort.

Sutherland, who this month filed a claim against the city regarding his proposal, believes this is how the ballot measure’s defeat was peddled to voters. He pointed to the ballot argument written by three city council members, which says Marinapark is “the last opportunity for a waterfront bay-beach park on the Balboa Peninsula.”

But what people actually voted on didn’t guarantee a future park if they voted no. The measure only asked whether to change the city’s general plan to allow the resort.

A profit motive

The real heart of the marina question is whether the property should generate a profit, and that question wasn’t resolved by the public process of the ad hoc committee.

Committee member Louise Fundenberg said she’s not sure the city needs to use Marinapark to make money.

“I think we’re a wealthy enough city that if we need to build some amenities, [we could],” she said. “Once you take out all those trailers, you could leave the land just the way it is and walk and sit on the beach.”

Others have argued that the money generated by a marina could help pay for other public improvements at the site, and there would still be room for them even with the marina.

“I’m a solid supporter of a marina at Marinapark,” Councilman Tod Ridgeway said. “Everybody keeps saying this is catering to the rich. That’s not true. What it does is open a viewscape around there.... It could fund all those improvements that we want, and it’s not the major component.”

A battle by the sea

Webb expects the council to resume discussions of Marinapark early in 2006, and he has called for more public input. But the council might not like everything it hears -- Billings said he will fight a marina plan tooth and nail, even if it means seeking another public vote.

“If the council were to ever approve the use to be a commercial marina, we would take it to an initiative,” Billings said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson@latimes.com.