Park group signs stolen

About 30 political signs posted Wednesday at Corona del Mar businesses along East Coast Highway by the group Friends of Begonia Park are missing.

The group, which has fought against one man’s plans to build a home on a lot adjacent to the park because they claim it will block a scenic view of Newport Harbor, has reported the missing signs to police.

“I feel a level of consternation and I want to make what happened public, because I don’t think it’s right,” Friends of Begonia Park member Kenneth Jaggers said Thursday. “I don’t think a mental giant did this.”

The group spent about $500 to print the signs, which read “Save the Begonia Park View,” Jaggers said.

Jaggers spent most of the day Wednesday delivering the signs to local businesses in the rain, only to discover many of them missing when he went out for coffee Thursday morning.

Most of the missing signs were in private planter boxes in front of businesses on East Coast Highway, Jaggers said.

Land owner Kim Megonigal wants to build a three-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot house on a vacant lot below Begonia Park in Corona del Mar.

Megonigal said he had nothing to do with the missing signs.

“They’re putting those signs everywhere and it’s upsetting to a lot of people,” Megonigal said. “It’s making us look like bad guys for building a house on a lot we own.”

The Friends claims the home would block as much as 50% of the park’s view. The group has collected about 900 signatures in protest of the Megonigal house, Jaggers said.

Megonigal has had to pay about $35,000 for an environmental-impact report on his project. The report found that the house won’t significantly block public views.

However, Friends of Begonia Park claim the report was botched because it was based on photographs of the park view taken before city workers cut back large clumps of shrubbery at the park.

The Newport Beach Planning Commission approved plans for the house earlier this year. The City Council is slated to discuss whether the city should allow Megonigal to build his house Jan. 12.

The city’s general plan protects public views, but Megonigal also has rights as a property owner, said Councilwoman Nancy Gardner, who represents Corona del Mar.

“This is the first time we’ve really had some sort of face off between some of the softer policies of the general plan and somebody’s right to build a home,” Gardner said. “It’s a tough one. Where do you draw the line? Both sides will have interesting things to say.”