HomeMy WebLinkAbout00 - Insider's GuideReceived After Agenda Printed
August 12, 2014
Brown, Leilani Insider's Guide
From: Kiff, Dave
Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2014 6:29 PM
Subject: Insider's Guide - City Council meeting of August 12, 2014
Today's Insider's Guide highlights items on the NB Planning Commission's agenda for Monday, August 11, 2014 as
well as on the NB City Council's agenda for Tuesday, August 12, 2014.
The Planning Commission will look at some important items - consideration of the Lido House Hotel being the first
one. The Draft EIR is complete, and the Commission will also look at recommended new zoning for this site - now home
to the old city hall at 3300 Newport Boulevard.
Other items involve alcoholic beverage licenses - one is for Sancho's Tacos on the Peninsula to sell beer and wine. This
is an appeal of the zoning administrator's approval for Sancho's to do so. Another is for the Lido Theater (also on the
Peninsula) - the request is to be able to sell beer, in part affiliated with its move towards live performances. Finally,
another item is the Port Theater's (in CdM) request to have later hours and to sell alcohol in more areas of the building.
The Port Theater already has an on -sale general alcohol license.
The latter two items include consideration of "operator's licenses" issued by the Police Chief. The Port has one now
and it would need to be amended. The Lido Theater is asking for late hours and alcohol sales which kicks in the
Operators' License requirement. Once issued, the operator's license can be revoked quickly by the Police Chief if
conditions aren't being adhered to. Or maybe he'll just drive an old motorhome into licensees' premises to encourage
compliance. If he doesn't stall out. :)
The Planning Commission's meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Civic Center's council chambers on Monday,
August 11th. Please look at the website to review the agenda if these items stir your interest.
The meeting of the Newport Beach City Council (also at the Civic Center but the following day, Tuesday, August 12)
has some interesting items on the agenda. This is the only planned meeting for August, so the agenda is a little longer
than some meetings. Remember that you can watch this meeting at home (online or on N) as well as join us in person
at 100 Civic Center Drive.
Study Session - starts at 4:30 p.m. First, we get a chance to honor two remarkable employees. Our employee of
the year, Way -ning Hsu (of our dedicated IT staff) and Jim Turner, a lifeguard retiring this fall after something like 35
years of service with us (I'm writing this from home, so forgive me, Jim, if I missed or added a year or two there). Jim is
an institution with the NB lifeguarding family - and generations of Turners lifeguard for us.
We'll also update folks on bike improvements either recently installed or soon planned for the community - you've
probably seen a number of them on your walks, rides, or drives, but we'll summarize some good progress in making
Newport Beach more bike - friendly. One discordant side note here -- like each of you, I am still stunned at how many
people (drivers, and even some cyclists) are texting or on cell phones while moving or at signals. The PD issued over 400
citations for this in one month, but I think it's actually getting worse.
The Study Session offers a preview of an item coming up later as well as next month - mandatory water conservation
measures. We are directed by the State Water Resources Control Board to move towards mandatory restrictions. Our
codes already set up four levels of conservation, but the Council has to kick them off - we'll be recommending a Level
One restriction, which, among other things, limits days per week when things can be watered with irrigation systems
(hand watering has some exclusions). Please tune in to learn more - I'll also be sending more in the mail soon.
Finally, the Study Session offers a new concept for the Council to consider for the Balboa Theater. This one is a more
open, flexible space that can be used for fine arts, arts education, some performances, and some films.
At the Evening Session (which starts at 7:00 p.m.), there are a few items worth highlighting. Remember that I
don't highlight all of the agenda items, so feel free to peruse the website to see all of the items.
Full agenda: http: / /newportbeachca.gov/ modules /ShowDocument.asi)x ?documentid =4414
The Council will be asked to rename the entrance to the Balboa Bay Resort as "Balboa Bay Way." This gives that signal
there on PCH a green sign to let folks know it's the Bay Club, um, er, Resort.
The Level One water use restrictions appear again, but only to formally notify us all of the intent to hold a public
hearing about this on September 9, 2014. The restrictions would not apply until after September 9, assuming that the
Council heads this way. One sidebar here - did you know that a lot of the restrictions that the Water Board spoke about
already apply to us in Newport and across the region? Things like hosing down driveways, letting water run off your
landscaping into the gutter, and washing your car so that water flows off the property into the gutter are already
prohibited WHEN that water picks up pollutants in the gutter (and I've yet to see a pristine gutter) and carries it to the
Bay or Ocean. We issue some citations here already (the violations are called "prohibited discharges ").
Remember that huge, traffic - impacting water transmission main project all around Corona del Mar and up MacArthur
onto San Miguel? It's officially done, thankfully. It was done 50 days earlier than planned, and within budget. All of our
water lines are on a regular repair and replacement schedule within the "Water Master Plan," and that helps us try and
avoid what happened around UCLA several days ago. I won't jinx us by saying that we never have a main break, but we
are pretty aggressive when it comes to replacing old pipes. Thank you all for putting up with all of those traffic impacts
for the CdM project.
Sunset View Park is coming - we'll award a contract to construct this small but important park up the hill on the east
side of Superior near PCH (across Superior from Sunset Ridge Park). This will be another great spot to see the views
towards Catalina. I know that Council member Petros is happy to see this moving along.
Speaking of bike lanes, a new one is coming along Ford Road and Eastbluff Drive. We'll work hard to get this one
done before school starts at CdMHS. But it will be tight. This is a project that Council member Daigle has been asking
for for a long time, and it includes some great competitive grant funds ($235K!). The remainder of the project revenues
will come from the bike reserve to which community members donated a few years ago.
One public hearing item involves the post office on Riverside Avenue. The good news here is that it appears that the
US Post Office is going to stay in the back corner of that shopping center. We'll hear more about other proposed uses in
the shopping center during the hearing.
We're asking the Council to consider modifying how we charge users for recycled water (yes, we do sell reclaimed
water here in town). The pricing generally will be lowered. If you're close to a purple pipe, it can really save money as
well as reduce potable water use for landscaping. But not a lot of the community is close to the main connections that
get the reclaimed water to us. Just as a reminder, almost all of the Newport Coast and Ridge has reclaimed water for
landscaping, as do areas like Big Canyon and the Newport Beach Country Club. Reclaimed water is excluded from the
mandatory restrictions noted previously.
One item I'm excited about is the chance to improve walking, biking, and driving at 32nd Street and Newport Boulevard
by acquiring the vacant Blockbuster site. The big building will be taken down and the road (as well as parking) will be
improved at that busy intersection near the old city hall site (across from Chipotle). Removing Blockbuster (still call it that
even though Blockbuster is long gone) will really open that corner up and allow us to improve the aesthetics there in
accordance with the Lido Village Design Guidelines. This is a project co- funded by the City and OCTA using funds we
successfully competed for under Measure M.
Finally, there's a hearing on a telecom installation in Newport Center, generally between the clubhouse for the
Newport Beach Country Club and Newport Center Drive. It would be two "slim" monopoles.
That's it for now. As always, thanks for reading the Insider's Guide and please forward it along to other community
members who might benefit from it. Have a safe and enjoyable remainder of August and I'll write again after Labor Day.
Dave Kiff
City Manager
City of Newport Beach
949 - 644 -3001 or dkiff @newportbeachca.gov