COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Newport needs park plus city hall

At the Speak Up Newport Mayor’s Dinner on Tuesday night, I presented a plan to over 400 attendees, many of whom are the leaders and opinion-makers in our community. I asked them to consider the use of a small portion of the 12-acre property next to our main library on Avocado Avenue as a site for our new city hall.

I have come to the conclusion that we made a mistake when we withdrew the 12 acres next to the library from consideration for a city hall. Our city is virtually built out horizontally. Although we are still considering several other parcels, they all have significant challenges to overcome. We need to be creative and maximize the use of our valuable city assets.

I am certain that we can honor the promise of the park next to the library and still provide for a city hall facility. It is a concept that I call Park Plus. One potential design I presented at the mayor’s dinner provides for an 8- to 9-acre park and uses less than 3 to 4 acres of the 12-acre property for the buildings, parking and roadways associated with city hall. As part of the design features of the facility, the roofs could be planted with vegetation in a manner that would make it virtually indistinguishable from a park. We are only limited by our imagination.

As a further benefit, city hall could be directly accessible from the park and the library. Not only would the views from this property be protected, they would be enhanced. It would create an opportunity to build a park that will literally be used by thousands instead of another stunted park like the one at Jamboree Road and East Coast Highway that is only used by a handful of residents.

Since Tuesday, several members of our city hall site review committee have contacted me to express their whole-hearted support for the Park Plus plan.

My requests to you, the residents of our community, are these:

Please e-mail the City Council, write letters to the Daily Pilot and show up for Tuesday’s council meeting, when the park issue will be discussed. What I am asking you to do is speak up, Newport.

is Newport Beach’s mayor and represents District 2 on the City Council.