Mailbag: Let’s improve the marina-area architecture

I have been a resident on Lido Island for 40 years and can’t understand how projects like the new marina on the peninsula could have possibly been approved. This is one of the most horrible excuses for architecture I have ever seen. This structure looks like it came out of “The Jetsons” TV show.

It does not fit in with any of the architecture existing anywhere other than City Hall, which also is a nightmare, along with the bridge to nowhere! I think the city of Newport needs to have a theme that looks quaint and beach-like, like Carmel or Laguna. I don’t know of anyone living on the peninsula who can stand the new structure. Let’s have it removed and a less-commercial, more Balboa-style marina, with some form of taste built.

John M. Zinsmeyer

Newport Beach

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Desalination project is concerning

A couple of weeks ago, the Orange County Water District board approved a term sheet with Poseidon Water for an ocean water desalination plant in Huntington Beach that would produce 50 million gallons of potable water per day.

This may sound good, but the deal raises many questions.

Will district ratepayers pick up undue risk if the project fails or is not needed? Will this desalination project create a dead zone along Huntington State Beach that will drive away tourists, recreation and fishing? Why is a private company involved in the production of a public water supply? Does this area of California need this costly water?

Poseidon Water received multiple public-agency permits over the years but still needs the approval of the big kahuna, the California Coastal Commission.

If the company put this much energy into building a 21st century project in a location that needs its water, maybe it would have a plant that was running by now. Instead, it wants to put a harmful, costly and archaic desalination plant in a place that doesn’t need it.

Pat Goodman

Huntington Beach

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