City Council to take on big issues

Greg Risling

NEWPORT BEACH -- Pack a meal -- maybe two -- for tonight’s City Council

meeting that will include several controversial issues including annexing

Santa Ana Heights and Newport Coast, and the proposed Marinapark Hotel.

The meeting is expected to attract a big crowd and probably will run well

into the night because of the hot-button topics.

Council members will listen to public debate on whether three communities

that surround Newport Beach -- Bay Knolls, Newport Coast and Santa Ana

Heights -- should be incorporated as part of the city. The latter two

could provide the city property tax revenues but both have their own

complications.

In Newport Coast, residents would like to see some of those revenues

returned to the area. City officials believe they can give some of the

revenue back to coast residents without decreasing the amount of money to

the city’s general fund.

In Santa Ana Heights, the concern is over dividing the area between

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. Most residents who attended a community

forum last week backed a unified push to be included in Newport Beach.

Most of those who attended the meeting wanted to be freed from Costa

Mesa’s sphere of influence.

Newport Beach council members will likely forward an application to the

county’s Local Agency Formation Commission that will review the

reorganization plans.

Another attention-grabber will be a study session on the proposed

156-room resort hotel on the peninsula. The developer, Sutherland Talla,

wants to build a luxury hotel where a mobile home park and an American

Legion Post now stand. City officials must consider whether to displace

the tenants in favor of hotel tax revenues. Both leases are set to expire

March 2000.