Commentary: Museum House will allow OCMA to move to a better location

Having attended both the Planning Commission and City Council meetings on the Museum House — both groups all but unanimously approving the project — I am stunned by the vehemence of the project’s opponents.

It seems that the only two opposing arguments that are not clearly false or purely emotional are fears of increased traffic and precedent-setting for more high-rises. As to the first, the EIR concluded that the increase in traffic was insignificant — about 300 more car trips a day, with only 33 during peak hours; this is plainly a trivial complaint.

As to precedent-setting, the Museum House’s location and circumstances are unique. The tower would block no residential views, its footprint is relatively small, and its top elevation is below many of the existing, and quite proximate, high-rises already in Newport Center. To suggest that this sets a precedent for imagined future development that would be nearer the beach or block any residential view seems to be hyperbolic fear-mongering.

But three other unique facts are more important:

First, between developer fees and future property taxes, it will add tens of millions of dollars to the city’s treasury. This is manifestly good for the city and all its residents.

Second, on a relatively small lot within walking distance to many stores and services, it would provide much-needed single-level homes for quite a few of the multitude of older Newport residents who need to downsize after their children have left.

Third, and I believe most important, is that Museum House’s advent would enable a dramatic improvement in the future of the Orange County Museum of Art. The project’s traffic analysis showed that there are only 108 trips on average to OCMA now. This is a clear cultural failure.

While we may take pride in having OCMA in Newport, it is the Orange County — not Newport Beach — Museum of Art, and its current location is simply not succeeding in effectively bringing fine arts to the city, much less the whole county. Moving OCMA to the South Coast Plaza cultural area, with its easy freeway access and proximity to the first-class theater and music venues there, is eminently sensible.

It will bring enormous benefits to the entire county, as have the music venues and SCR. It is hard to imagine any economic way for OCMA to move without this kind of project.

Those who oppose the Museum House should carefully examine the clear benefits of the project, and ponder whether their objections outweigh those plusses. No one wants high-rises on the beach, nor even near it. No one wants significant traffic increases. Everyone should want a better-funded Newport Beach, and a culturally richer Orange County.

ROGER DAVISSON lives on Newport Coast.