SPON eyes a more sustainable future for Newport Beach

Stop Polluting Our Newport, a longtime community organization, has plans to draft a blueprint detailing ways for the city and residents to be more sustainable.

More than 50 members of the nonprofit organization, which aims to protect and preserve the residential and environmental qualities of Newport Beach — gathered for its 41st annual meeting Saturday to discuss milestones of the past year and briefly touch on upcoming projects.

The group, known as SPON, will brainstorm ideas during a July workshop for the sustainability document, which will likely look at ways to reduce residents’ carbon footprint and encourage city leaders to approve responsible development.

Last year, SPON led the effort to oppose the general plan land use update Measure Y, which was defeated in November’s election. The group alleged the plan would have increased development in Newport Center and snarled traffic throughout the city.

SPON board members have plans to submit their plan to the City Council to help guide them in future decision making, board member Dorothy Kraus said.

The majority of Saturday’s meeting focused on ways to make Newport Beach sustainable.

Sustainability is adapting human activity to the constraints and opportunities of nature to meet present and future needs, said Terry Watt, who owns a planning consulting firm in San Francisco.

“It’s all about efficiency, reducing waste, making better choices and having better choices available,” she said.

Watt, the featured speaker at Saturday’s meeting, encouraged community involvement in creating ways to help the city conserve resources.

She highlighted cities such as Berkeley and Lancaster as being ahead of the curve in creating environmentally friendly plans through the use of solar powered technology, water conservation and green building projects. Both cities have a measurable plan to reduce emissions over the next several decades, she said.

“The 2006 general plan does not embrace sustainability the way other cities do,” she said. “There’s work that needs to be done. Other cities are ahead of you.”

She explained that Newport Beach’s Energy Action Plan, approved in 2013, is effective in creating sustainability goals, but the community must work with city leaders to make the plan a reality.

The AARP Public Policy Institute, which studies data related to quality of life for seniors in communities, rates Newport Beach as 52 out of 100 on its livability index, which scores cities across the nation based on factors such as housing, civic engagement, health and transportation options.

The reason Newport Beach’s score is lackluster, Watt said, is because of the high cost of housing and the lack of community engagement.

“If you’re frustrated with how the City Council is voting, put some benchmarks in place,” she said.