Unpopular idea may sink city leader

An unpopular effort to reduce traffic congestion in Corona del Mar may end up driving Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols out of his seat in November.

Nichols has stirred up vigorous opposition with a proposal that would make East Coast Highway into six traffic lanes instead of the current four through Corona del Mar.

He said the plan will help ease congestion and make the road safer for bicyclists and people getting in and out of parked cars, but it would also require some of the highway’s recently redone medians to be torn out or scaled back and would reduce parking during rush hours.

His plan also includes two other suggestions: Turn part of the San Joaquin Hills tollway back into a public road, and realign a dam in Buck Gully to create an extension of 5th Avenue. Those options would help the city if East Coast Highway were ever shut down ? in a flood, for example ? and the overall goal is to get traffic flowing, Nichols said.

When the city acquired the Corona del Mar stretch of East Coast Highway from Caltrans, it took on the responsibility of improving traffic, and the city’s general plan encourages that also, Nichols said.

The goal of smooth traffic flow may be worthy, but some residents and business owners adamantly oppose the plan, and it’s not expected to get serious consideration from the council.

Nichols said he hasn’t heard a major outcry against the plan, but some residents disagreed.

“I have not found one single person besides Mr. Nichols himself who is supporting it,” Corona del Mar Residents Assn. Vice President Debra Allen said. After a meeting with Nichols last week, the group sent a letter to the council rejecting the plan.

More driving lanes and faster traffic on East Coast Highway are the opposite of the pedestrian-oriented village that residents want and have been working toward for several years, Allen said.

When Nichols brought the idea up a few weeks ago, city council members “suggested six to one that we didn’t think it was a good idea,” Mayor Don Webb said.

The strong opposition to the proposal signals trouble for Nichols’ reelection campaign. He is finishing his first four-year term on the council and will seek a second in November ? but he may have lost the community’s support.

Corona del Mar business improvement district president John Blom, who owns a photography studio on East Coast Highway, said it’s not uncommon for Nichols to forge ahead in spite of community concerns.

To Blom, the traffic plan would benefit commuters who don’t live in Newport Beach but drive through Corona del Mar to avoid paying on the tollway. Reconfiguring the traffic lanes would reduce the on-street parking that businesses depend on, he said.

“The more he pushes it, the worse he’ll do in the election because it’s absolutely not what people want,” Blom said. “People do not want a freeway through Corona del Mar.”