Judge hears OCMA request to block final council vote to revoke Museum House approval
An Orange County Superior Court judge heard a request Wednesday for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the Newport Beach City Council from finalizing its decision to rescind approval of the Museum House condominium development.
After about an hour’s discussion in his Santa Ana courtroom, Judge Geoffrey Glass did not issue a ruling on the request, which was filed by the Orange County Museum of Art. He did not indicate when a ruling would be issued.
OCMA is looking to sell its property at 850 San Clemente Drive in Newport Center to developer Related California, which proposed to build Museum House there. OCMA would use the funds from the sale to build a new facility in Costa Mesa.
The City Council approved Museum House, a 100-unit, 25-story luxury condominium tower, last year before rescinding its decision in February following a certified petition drive by local activist group Line in the Sand, which called for a public vote on the project.
OCMA filed a lawsuit in January challenging the validity of the petition, saying it lacked some required documents and the font was too small to read.
The museum’s request for the temporary restraining order seeks to prevent the council from taking a procedural second vote March 14 to rescind its approval.
Much of Wednesday’s discussion in court consisted of Glass expressing frustration with OCMA’s attorney, Darryl Wold, because Glass was unable to find or easily reference Wold’s new and old court filings.
Line in the Sand attorney Beverly Grossman Palmer argued against one of the main contentions in OCMA’s lawsuit — that the petition font was smaller than the 8-point size required by state elections code.
Palmer said OMCA’s counsel erroneously referred to a law that guides statewide referendums, not local ones.
“Because the supposed 8-point requirement does not apply to local referenda and there are numerous state laws acknowledging that 6-point font is a sufficient size for important warnings, petitioners will not be able to demonstrate that the referendum petition was non-compliant with applicable law,” Palmer wrote in Line in the Sand’s argument filed late Tuesday.
Wold contested Palmer’s assertion, saying municipal referendums were incorporated into the state law he cited.
OCMA has said it would like a restraining order to be in effect for three to four months, enough time for the court to make a decision on its lawsuit challenging Line in the Sand’s petition.
OCMA’s president and board chairman, Craig Wells, said in a filing Tuesday that the museum has outgrown its Newport Beach facility and needs to build something bigger at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Wells said the museum is heavily reliant on the purchase price Related was willing to pay for OCMA’s land — an amount that hasn’t been made public.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
