By Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
The next meeting of the Newport Beach City Council will be on Tuesday, March 25 at 4 p.m. The full agenda is available here: https://www.newportbeachca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/77123/72.
Agenda items include:
- A 5-year agreement with Kit Coffee (operating under Kit at the Library, Inc.), to operate the retail concession facility at the Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave. City staff is recommending Kit Coffee, a locally owned coffee shop with facilities in Newport Beach and Irvine, after evaluating proposals from interested food-service operators. Kit Coffee proposes to offer coffee and tea-based drinks and a limited food menu with items such as toasts, sandwiches and salads at the library location.
- 2024 General Plan annual progress report, including a Housing Element report. Under State law the City must prepare and submit an annual report on the status of the City’s General Plan and implementation progress. The Council action would approve the report and authorize staff to submit the report to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
- Amendment of a municipal ordinance related to the completion of residential home construction. In 2019, the City Council adopted a three-year time limit to complete construction of one-unit and two-unit family dwellings. In 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and delayed construction, the Council temporarily granted the City’s building official authority to extend the time limit for up to one additional year. The Council will consider an amendment to remove a sunset provision from the ordinance and grant the building official authority to approve up to two, 180-day extensions for projects entering their fourth year. This amendment eliminates the public hearing requirement for these specific extensions, streamlining the process and reducing costs for permit holders. Requests for a third or fourth extension would require a public hearing with an administrative hearing officer. Additionally, the proposed ordinance introduces new requirements for applicants seeking extensions.
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.
