Newport fire rings plans up for discussion at council meeting
If you have an opinion about the use and arrangement of Newport Beach fire rings, Tuesday’s City Council meeting will offer an occasion to air your view.
City lawmakers will discuss up to nine alternative arrangements of fire rings. The city submitted seven of them in late January as part of its application to the California Coastal Commission for a coastal development permit for 60 wood-burning fire rings. Two other proposals came from a group of residents on the Balboa Peninsula.
Plan 1, endorsed by the council, would allow 18 wood-burning firerings at Corona del Mar State Beach, 26 near the Balboa Pier, nine north of the Newport Pier and seven at the west side of the Newport Dunes lagoon.The rings would be arranged 100 feet apart to comply with requirements of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
In 2013, the city limited all its fire rings to charcoal.
But the City Council voted 5 to 2 on Jan. 13 for an interim plan returning wood to 30 rings – 15 on the east side of the Balboa Pier and 15 at Corona del Mar. The rest of the city’s fire rings are still charcoal-only.
To see the nine plans up for discussion Tuesday, go to https://www.newportbeachca.gov and search for “fire rings plans.”
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.
Balboa Peninsula alcohol issue
Before the regular meeting, the City Council will hold a public study session at 3:30 p.m. to discuss nuisance and crime problems on the Balboa Peninsula associated with the area’s concentration of liquor licenses.
The session, requested by Mayor Pro Tem Diane Dixon, comes after the council last month directed staff to draft an amendment to the city’s zoning code that would form an overlay district for the peninsula, likely including regulations to address the effects of alcoholic beverage service at bars and restaurants open past 11 p.m.
Dixon emphasized to worried residents and bar operators at a town hall meeting Feb. 17 that that does not mean the city is proposing forcing peninsula bars to close at 11 p.m.
According to city statistics, 117 businesses on the peninsula have licenses to serve alcohol, an average of one Alcoholic Beverage Control license for every 95 residents. In Newport Beach as a whole, the average is one ABC license for every 189 residents.
Peninsula residents have long complained to the city about noise, property crime and other problems caused by intoxicated people and others walking around late at night.
“So I asked for the study session so the entire council could take a look at this situation and hear ideas from the police, the city staff and the public,” Dixon wrote in a commentary published March 1 in the Daily Pilot.
She wrote that options proposed so far include applying current rules and codes governing alcohol selling to older establishments that were “grandfathered” under the new regulations, having additional law enforcement between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. and promoting a voluntary effort in which new and older bars work together to control crowds.
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