Decision reopens debate on city hall

After the Newport Beach City Council voted on Tuesday to consider building a city hall on a planned park site, what is and isn’t on the table may depend on whom you listen to.

The council has been discussing replacement of the deteriorating City Hall on Balboa Peninsula since early 2005. A $48-million civic center proposal at the current site wasn’t unanimously embraced by the community, so the council named a committee to study 22 sites ? which led back to the current site.

Council members were poised to move ahead with a facility on the peninsula Tuesday, but community interest in a plan from architect Bill Ficker led them to again delay a decision.

Ficker’s proposal would place a new city hall on a site slated for a park next to the main library on Avocado Avenue. Park proponents balked, asking the council not to take away what they call a long-promised community asset.

At a July 11 study session, both sides will explain their views to the council, with a council vote expected July 25.

Ficker will present his plan for a $27.5-million city hall on the 12.5-acre park site, incorporating suggestions he’s gotten from the community. He was careful to note that he’s not actually proposing specific architecture ? he created a building design as an example, and a one-story building is more cost-effective, he said.

One suggestion Ficker likes is to turn the existing City Hall into an urban park rather than selling it for development. A few facilities, such as the council chambers, could be kept for community use, and plenty of room would be available for a rebuilt fire station, he said.

Even without selling the current site, Ficker said, “The cost of building a city hall above the library there would be a huge saving over trying to cram it on this site down here, but possibly the biggest issue is not having to make these two moves.”

To rebuild on the peninsula, city workers would have to be moved elsewhere while construction takes place.

Parks commissioner Debra Allen said that at the study session she’ll present the assets of the planned park. A development agreement sets the property aside for open space, and at least one council member said he thinks it should stay that way.

Councilman Ed Selich on Tuesday urged his colleagues to answer the policy question of whether they want to trade a central location for a park, and he still thinks that’s the main issue.

The council voted in December not to put the park site on a list of possible city hall locations, and Selich said Friday that was the right decision.

“We took it off the table for a reason,” he said.

Allen said she also hopes the council will consider reopening talks with the Irvine Co. about selling or giving a long-term lease for a site at Corporate Plaza West, which was crossed off the list after company officials said they won’t sell.

“Assuming that they want to put it at Newport Center, you obviously have to look at the site that is already zoned for an office building; it’s the right size; it’s permitted; you don’t have to build a parking structure,” she said.

Although Selich said he’s also heard from a few people who think the city should use eminent domain to get the Corporate Plaza site, he views that power only as a last resort.

“I doubt very seriously that the council would consider that,” City Manager Homer Bludau said of the city’s eminent domain power.

“We have a good site for City Hall now, and to condemn somebody else’s property, whether it’s the Irvine Co. or anybody else, I don’t think would sit very well with the community. If we didn’t have a site, maybe that would be a different matter.”dpt.28-cityhallrenderin-CPhotoInfoV91SHF7J20060701ihowptkn(LA)A 2005 rendering shows part of the proposed park.