Decision on pact delayed

Newport Beach will have to wait a week to see if Orange County supervisors approve a city-county pact that would give Newport the power to block future expansion at John Wayne Airport.

Supervisors on Tuesday postponed a vote on the agreement until their Oct. 24 meeting. The delay came after an airport activist complained that the public may not have been properly notified about what is in the agreement, said Don Hughes, a spokesman for Supervisor Jim Silva.

The Newport Beach City Council unanimously approved the agreement Oct. 10.

The pact includes provisions that would give the city veto power if the county tries to acquire land for a second commercial runway at the airport or to extend the existing one; it would give the city $500,000 of Santa Ana Heights redevelopment funds to build a park at Mesa Drive and Birch Street; it provides for two city-county studies on issues in Upper Newport Bay and the lower bay; and it would let the city decide without county involvement whether to scrap plans for a horse and bike trail in Santa Ana Heights.

That last provision raised objections among Santa Ana Heights residents who want the trail and fear its only protection is a requirement that the county agree to any changes in plans for the area.

Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said he would rather have seen the agreement approved Tuesday, but “I don’t think it will hurt us at all.”