John Wayne could be a residential hub

Two companies are proposing to build new housing units in Newport Beach near the airport. In Newport Beach, the area around John Wayne Airport could become a place to live rather than just a place to do business.

Proposals to update Newport’s zoning rules could make the airport area a scene for residential construction. But don’t expect to see as much construction as is planned in nearby Irvine.

In December, the Newport Beach planning commission is set to hear a proposal from Costa Mesa-based Brookfield Homes Corp. to build 86 condominiums at 1301 Quail Street.

Friday, Newport Beach Planning Director Patricia Temple said city planners have received an application for a residential project that would be built near the intersection of Jamboree Road and Campus Drive.

The second proposal, submitted by Santa Ana-based World Premier Investments, is not yet on the planning commission’s schedule, Temple said. The preliminary proposal includes plans for 82 residential units along with retail and restaurant components.

“The opportunity to provide a Newport Beach address with urban amenities was very enticing,” said Carol McDermott, a principal with Newport Beach-based Government Solutions Inc. McDermott is representing World Premier’s proposal.

The proposed projects in Newport’s airport area are much smaller than Lennar Communities’ planned 1,380-unit Central Park project in the Irvine Business Complex, a part of Irvine that lies north and to the west of Newport Beach’s airport area and John Wayne Airport itself. Central Park is one of 29 projects on a list of residential projects compiled by Irvine officials that have been proposed, approved or under construction in the Irvine Business Complex. If all of those proposals become a reality, more than 9,500 residential units could be built near the airport in Irvine.

“I am very, very concerned about the Irvine developments because the number of units they’re proposing in there is staggering,” Newport Beach Planning Commissioner Robert Hawkins said. Hawkins favors residential development in Newport’s airport area.

Newport Beach’s airport area is bounded by the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway, Campus Drive and Jamboree Road. Hawkins said the planning commission’s sense is that the area can accommodate 3,300 residential units. The potential benefit of building places to live around the airport is that people employed by the area’s many businesses may be able to find a place to live near their workplaces, keeping cars off the road.

“In the short term, is that going to happen? Probably not. In the long term, we hope so,” Hawkins said.

Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood said a survey of Irvine Business Complex suggests people who may move into the airport area would have jobs near their homes. Results of that survey, released in October, showed that 40% of respondents in that area also live in that area. However, the same survey also showed that the car is still the king of the commute. The vast majority of respondents, 88%, said they drove alone to work.

Thursday, planning commissioners discussed land-use options around the airport as part of the city’s efforts to revamp its general plan. The general plan is Newport’s guide for development through 2025. Newport officials want residents to vote on a general plan update by November 2006.

Newport Beach’s airport area is one of two areas in the city that has room for substantial residential development, Wood said. Banning Ranch, 518 acres near West Newport that lies mostly in the jurisdiction of the county, is the other.

However, some environmentalists are seeking to prevent Banning Ranch from ever becoming developed. Terry Welsh, chairman of the Sierra Club-affiliated Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Task Force, said his group is seeking to raise “several million dollars” to buy Banning Ranch in order to forestall any construction.

Welsh said he and his allies would prefer housing be built near John Wayne.

“People that don’t want housing on Banning Ranch don’t mind it by the airport,” he said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@latimes.com.