By Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
Our next City Council meeting is Tuesday, March 22. Items of interest are highlighted below. The entire agenda and reports can be viewed here: https://www.newportbeachca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/68244/72.
Study session at 4 p.m. Agenda items include:
- Financial evaluation and discussion regarding a future inclusionary housing program. Staff and City consultants will discuss the findings of a recent evaluation of the potential financial impacts of inclusionary housing on development projects and receive Council direction.
Regular session at 5:30 p.m. Items of note:
- The Council will consider accepting a $120,000 donation from the trust of Dorothy Arens Ressel, a resident who bequeathed the funds to be split among the City’s fire, police and library departments. Under City policy, donations of more than $30,000 must be approved by the Council.
- A public hearing on land use entitlements for the Residences at 1300 Bristol project. The development proposal calls for construction of a 193-unit apartment building atop a 346-space parking structure as part of the Newport Place planned community at Bristol Street North and Spruce Street near the John Wayne Airport.
- The proposed project would require demolition of the existing 33,292-square-foot office building and surface parking within the nearly 2-acre site.
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: [email protected]. 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.
