Going nowhere very slowly over Marinapark

It would appear that the Newport Beach City Council is getting closer to having a final plan for Marinapark, the 9.8-acre plot of city-owned land on the harbor side of the Balboa Peninsula. Last week, the council decided to focus on two separate proposals for the land ? site of a to-be-closed mobile home park, the American Legion Hall, a Girl Scout house and tennis courts ? and perhaps find a way to create a compromise between the two. The council’s decision narrowed the possible plans from eight to just the two.

One of those plans, put forward by members of the city’s harbor commission, calls for a small, limited harbor with about 50 to 60 slips. Supporters say the city needs more places for visitors to dock their boats and that the plan would generate enough revenue to pay for itself The other, presented by members of the residents’ group Protect our Parks, includes an open park with views of the harbor and launches for small boats. They say that most residents want a park on the land.

Two plans. A possible compromise. Straight-forward, clear decisions to be made. It sounds like progress, no?

No. Unfortunately for everyone involved in the Marinapark planning process, the council essentially is back to the beginning of the debate about what to do with the land, back when the plan called for a hotel on the property ? until voters nixed that idea in November 2004. At that time, the basic argument for and against the hotel was about whether there should be a park or a money-generating business.

A park or a money-generating business. The only thing to have changed is that, instead of a hotel, city leaders are now considering a plan for a marina.

This stagnation is no single person’s fault ? it more is a result of the sticky Newport Beach political scene, in which the City Council and/or the Chamber of Commerce frequently is set against the growth-control group Greenlight (or a similar, and often tangentially related, group). While debate and discussion are critical and can lead to better solutions and better planning, residents of the city may now be seeing the downside to government overwhelmed by politics. Think the very worst of Washington D.C. bluster settling comfortably here in Newport Beach.

What is the solution? Clearly following Capitol Hill’s model is the wrong direction to head. Perhaps November’s election, in which six of the council’s seven seats are up for grabs, will produce a definitive shift in a particular, unquestionable direction. Perhaps ? and this may be a longshot hope ? the council’s thinking that there may be a compromise possible between the two Marinapark plans will produce concord. Perhaps residents ? the vast majority not tied closely to the council or Greenlight ? will finally decide “enough is enough” and demand that political leaders in town reach solutions more quickly. Or perhaps the threat of that will be enough to inch debate to a conclusion.