Newport Beach council to ratify local emergency relating to Huntington Beach oil spill

The Newport Beach City Council is expected Tuesday to ratify a local emergency declared Oct. 5 by City Manager Grace Leung in response to the oil spill that occurred off of the coast of Huntington Beach.

Earlier this week, Mayor Brad Avery said such a declaration allows the city to access more resources to help mitigate the financial impacts of the oil spill for the city and provide aide to affected private business owners throughout Newport Beach. It also cuts through some of the legislative red tape of paperwork.

First reports of oil washing ashore in the city were made Oct. 3.

Neighboring cities Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach also announced local emergencies in response to what officials estimate is a 24,696-gallon to, at worst, a 131,000-gallon spill. The cause of the spill remains under investigation and, while the city largely appears to be unscathed by the incident, it remains unclear as to what the full extent of the damage may be.

In other business, the City Council will also be discussing a resolution announcing the city’s intent to override a ruling by the Airport Land Use Commission that determined the city’s draft housing element was inconsistent with the Airport Environs Land Use Plans for John Wayne Airport due to noise, safety and general concerns of land use incompatibility.

The city is required by the Southern California Assn. of Governments to account for 4,834 housing units in its plans for the next decade. With much of the city built out, officials will look to the areas with the greatest capacities for zoning those residential projects — the airport area, Newport Center and Banning Ranch, which has long been in conservationists’ sights.

Nearly half the cities in Orange County, including Newport Beach, have heavily pushed back against their Regional Housing Needs Assessment allocations since it was announced that their numbers were more than doubled in 2019. Those figures were finalized in March.

All appeals of the requirements have been denied.

A staff report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting notes that, if the City Council should decide to override the determination, that it will be a two-step process and involve a second public hearing to officially override the decision by the Airport Land Use Commission.

At that point, city staff said the City Council could also consider taking final action and adopting the housing element.

Additionally as part of the study session, the Newport Beach City Council will be hearing about the current state of the McFadden Plaza, Newport Pier and Ocean Front Parking Lot areas. They will be discussing whether or not the city should explore potential rehabilitation for those areas.

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