By Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
Our next City Council meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 14. Items that may be of interest are highlighted below. The entire agenda, and all reports, can be viewed at https://newportbeachca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/64219/72.
Study session at 4 p.m.
Agenda items include:
- Inclusionary housing ordinance overview and considerations. Staff will present a summary of inclusionary housing ordinances, which are municipal ordinances that set minimum requirements for developers to provide affordable housing units when proposing a residential project. The discussion will cover the basic requirements of inclusionary housing, an overview of the City’s former inclusionary housing ordinance, examples in Southern California, and factors to consider when drafting an ordinance.
Regular session at 5:30 p.m. Items of note:
Consent Calendar:
- A grant agreement with Trellis International, a Costa Mesa-based non-profit organization that provides volunteer opportunities for individuals experiencing homelessness as a step toward stable employment and housing. Through volunteer projects, Trellis participants develop and refine job skills needed to reenter the job market and remain employed. Under the proposed agreement, the City will award a $30,000 grant to Trellis to provide four-person volunteer teams to undertake at least eight work projects in Newport Beach over a 1-year term. The projects may include cleanup of beaches, hiking trails, parking lots, piers and other public areas, graffiti removal, vegetation trimming and removal, and more.
Public Hearings and Current Business:
- Fiscal year 2020-2021 performance and evaluation report for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. The City is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to submit an annual report on block grant spending. The City’s fiscal year accomplishments include a senior mobile meals program, a homelessness prevention program, fair housing services, a motel voucher program for homeless individuals, and small business economic development grants.
- A resolution to extend emergency temporary use permits (ETUPs) for outdoor dining through December 31. Throughout the pandemic, the permits have allowed restaurants and retailers to conduct business outdoors on private and public property, parking lots and sidewalks while a City declaration of local emergency was in place. In June, after lifting the local emergency declaration, the City Council voted to extend the outdoor dining ETUPs through September 6. The Council action, if approved, would automatically extend the existing ETUPs through December 31. ETUP holders may apply for a limited-term permit to continue outdoor dining beyond December 31, for a period of up to 12 months.
City Council Meeting Information
The Newport Beach City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of most months (the exceptions are August and December).
Typically, there is a Study Session that starts at 4 p.m. Study sessions are times for the Council to take a deeper look at a specific issue, or hear a presentation, that might eventually lead to a specific and more formal action. A closed session often follows the Study Session. Closed sessions are typically to address legal, personnel, and other matters where additional confidentiality is important.
The Regular (evening) Session typically starts at 6 p.m., and often has a specific listing of different items ready for formal votes. Items on the “Consent Calendar” are heard all at once, unless a Council member has removed (aka “pulled”) an item from the Consent Calendar for specific discussion and separate vote. If an item on the agenda is recommended to be “continued”, it means that the item won’t be heard nor voted on that evening, but will be pushed forward to another noticed meeting.
Public Comment is welcomed at both the Study Session and the Regular Session. The public can comment on any item on the agenda. If you want to comment on a Consent Calendar item that was not pulled from the Consent Calendar by a Council Member, you will want to do so at the time listed on the agenda – right before the Council votes on the entire Consent Calendar (it’s Roman Numeral XIII on the posted agenda). If an item is pulled, the Mayor will offer that members of the public can comment as that specific item is heard separately.
Additionally, there is a specific section of Public Comment for items not on the agenda, but on a subject of some relationship to the city government.
If you cannot attend a meeting and/or want to communicate with the City Council directly, this e-mail gets to all of them: citycouncil@newportbeachca.gov. The City Manager also gets a copy of the email, because in almost all cases it’s something that the City Manager follows-up on.
The Council meets in the Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive, off of Avocado between San Miguel and East Coast Highway. There is plenty of parking in the parking structure. You are always welcome to attend in person, but you can also watch on TV, Spectrum channel 30 and Cox channel 852 or stream it on your computer.
This Insider’s Guide is not an attempt to summarize every item on the Agenda – just the ones that seem of specific interest to the City Manager. You are encouraged to read the full agenda if you wish.
