By Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
The next City Council meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 12. Items of interest are highlighted below. The entire agenda and reports can be viewed here: https://newportbeachca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/73662/72.
The City Council meeting will begin at 4 p.m. with presentations, followed by a closed session. The regular meeting will begin at 5 p.m. after the closed session. Agenda items include:
- Amendments to the City’s General Plan and Castaways Marina development plan related to a proposed aquatic facility at Lower Castaways Park, 100 Dover Dr. The amendments would allow the City to consider the development of a Lower Castaways Aquatic Facility as discussed at an October 8 City Council study session. The study session presented a Council Ad Hoc committee recommendation for a community recreational pool facility, which would include a 9,000-square-foot building, 50-meter pool, therapy pool, splash pad, hand boat launch, and event venue.
- A lease amendment with Newport Harbor Post No. 291 of the American Legion for the use of City and tidelands property at 215 15th St. The City has leased the site to the American Legion, which serves active duty and veterans of the U.S. armed forces, since 1940. The proposed amendments would revise rent payment calculations and update other terms of the lease.
- Acceptance of a $360,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to fund DUI enforcement and awareness, traffic safety operations, and sobriety checkpoints. The grant funds will pay overtime and benefits costs for Newport Beach Police Department officers assigned to DUI checkpoints, DUI patrol operations and traffic enforcement operations related to distracted driving, motorcycle safety, and bicycle/pedestrian enforcement.
- Establishment of development impact fees for new residential and commercial development. Approval of this item would allow one-time charges to be imposed on new developments to fund public infrastructure and services needed to accommodate the increased demand created by the new development. The proposed fees would apply to new residential development included in the City’s updated Housing Element and new commercial developments. Historically the City has offset the impacts of new development through individual development agreements, which will largely be eliminated with the recently adopted housing element.
- Approval of a recommendation by the City Arts Commission to adjust the rotation schedule for the Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park and artist honorariums. Changing the rotation of each sculpture from 2 years to 3 years would result in an estimated savings of about $90,000 over 3 years.
- Approval of a five-year professional services agreement with Visit Newport Beach Inc. (VNB) for tourism-focused marketing and promotional programs and activities. VNB, a business unit of Newport Beach & Company, provides destination marketing services to the City under an agreement that will expire on December 31. Under the current agreement, VNB receives 18% of all commercial and residential Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenues collected by the City. Under the new proposed agreement, the City would retain TOT revenues from short-term lodging to further address impacts and community needs associated with short-term rentals. To offset the loss of short-term lodging TOT revenue, VNB would receive 23 percent of commercial (hotel) TOT revenues, estimated at $7.05 million in FY 2025-26. The agreement includes steps to increase transparency in the use of public funds, including consolidating Visit Newport Beach, Inc. and Newport Beach & Company into one organization, changing the composition of the board of directors, and other terms related to audits, executive compensation, economic disclosures, travel expenses, and limitations on political activity.
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.
