Newport Center Park put on hold

NEWPORT BEACH — City Council members voted late Tuesday to put plans for Newport Center Park on hold, saying they want to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

The park plans now will go back to the parks and recreation commission for review, and the commission will report to the council within two months.

The council rescinded its Feb. 27 decision to begin building the 12-acre passive park after learning last week Parks Commissioner Debra Allen — who participated in planning the park — could have a conflict of interest. City maps show Allen lives within 500 feet of the park, which could create a conflict under state Fair Political Practices Commission rules, City Atty. Robin Clauson said.

The political commission has not weighed in on whether there is a conflict, and Allen said she got an appraisal of her property that shows none exists.

But council members said letting the parks commission revisit Newport Center Park’s design will make the city less vulnerable to a lawsuit over the potential conflict.

The members stressed that the decision does not mean there will be a new consideration of building a city hall on the Avocado Avenue park site — an option that the council has rejected inthree different votes.

“Pure and simple, it is lawsuit inoculation,” Councilman Keith Curry said. “This is not a reopening of the city hall issue.”

Curry was one of six council members who voted to send the issue back to the parks commission for a decision within two months.

Mayor Steve Rosansky, who cast the dissenting vote, said the clock should be turned back farther, to when public input was taken on the park design.

Allen defended herself against the suggestion that she might have a conflict of interest, and several council members and residents said they support her and appreciate her many years of service to the city. She has served on the parks commission for seven years in addition to other volunteer work.

Councilman Michael Henn called the episode “a very unfortunate last-minute development and a quick decision to deal with it.”

Thursday’s decision to rewind the park design was an unexpected setback in a somewhat bumpy planning process. Although Newport Center Park has long been dedicated as parkland, it’s taken years to start planning the actual park.

Not everyone likes the final design for a passive park.

There are already plenty of them in the city, some say, and the priority should be active areas, such as sports fields.

Architect Bill Ficker, who has led the movement to put a city hall on the park site, pointed out that Newport Center Park is one of the lowest priorities in the city’s general plan, and a long-term plan for city facilities shows the park being built around 2018, after a number of other projects.