General Plan

Should Newport Beach remain a residential and beach community with a high quality of life or become a high-density, congested city like Santa Monica? The latest proposed update to the city's general plan calls for extensive developments and density increases that will turn us into another Santa Monica. The current plan will create more than 20 unsatisfactory intersections in the city. Your trips to the supermarket or to visit friends in the city will become increasingly inconvenient.

The Greenlight committee, a residents group that successfully passed a landmark growth control measure in Newport Beach in 2000, wants voters to have an even bigger say in the city's future development. The group on Friday announced it will circulate petitions for a new ballot initiative it has dubbed Greenlight II. The measure would apply the first Greenlight initiative's voter controls over development to the city's existing general plan. That means if the initiative passes, a public vote would be required on any proposal that exceeds existing development in Newport Beach by more than 100 dwelling units, 100 peak hour car trips or 40,000 square feet of building space.

The charade that Newport's Greenlight movement is anything other than anti-growth was neatly shattered a week ago with the announcement of the start of the "Greenlight II" campaign. If voters approve this latest proposal from the residents group formed before the 2000 elections, it will stifle nearly all development in the city -- the good, the bad and the dense. Greenlight's latest foray into Newport politics takes the form of an extension of its original development guidelines, which mandate voter approval of any developments that greatly exceed what is allowed in the city's general plan -- its blueprint for growth and development.

Other than the Banning Ranch property, there aren't many areas around Newport Beach with nearly 500 acres of largely undeveloped land. Some environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, have urged that the land be reserved as open space and have even talked about buying it. Under the city of Newport Beach's existing general plan, about 2,700 units of housing and 235,000 square feet of office space, plus ...

Tim Willert GLENDALE CITY HALL -- The Planning Commission, which meets today at 6 p.m. to discuss the merits of the proposed Oakmont View V project, will have to do so without the blessing of city planners. The Planning Division is recommending the commission deny recommending to the City Council the proposed 572-lot, single-family housing development on 238 acres in the Verdugo Mountains. "It was apparent that the project was inconsistent with the city's general plan," Laura H. Stotler, a senior planner, said Tuesday.

New housing near John Wayne Airport and Newport Center, another anchor store at Fashion Island, and public open space including a park with athletic fields at Banning Ranch all made the final cut Tuesday, when the Newport Beach City Council decided which future land-use options to study in detail. Those suggestions may become part of the city's general plan, which will outline how the city could be developed through 2025. Officials have been working since 2002 to update the general plan.

The local coastal plan process used by the city of Newport Beach could have been greatly improved, and this may have sped up the process. The city agreed to a timetable for the plan because it needed a special law sponsored by then-state Sen. Ross Johnson that allowed Newport Coast to be annexed by Newport Beach but still stay under Orange County rules so it could keep the land-use plan that covered Newport Coast prior to annexation. The city unfortunately had missed its obligations to the Coastal Commission prior to the annexation and needed this special law. Newport Beach has had a very good process for Vision 2025 and the update of the general plan, but the local coastal plan was excluded from that process although it has many parallel issues, including land use and completing the bicycle trail along the beach from 36th Street to the Santa Ana River, which is part of the California Coastal Trail.

LOS ANGELES — Calabasas Developer MWH Development Corp. has submitted an application to build 229 single-family homes on the site of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course and get rid of the golf course all together, company officials said. The application to the Los Angeles City Planning Department comes more than a year after the company last presented a plan to the public for the 58-acre property, which it purchased for $7.6 million in 2004. A previous proposal called for 269 condominiums and town homes that would have occupied a portion of the existing 18-hole golf course, leaving a smaller 9-hole course.

The city of Glendale is considering extending the planning process for Montrose Village by six months to a year, with a regional discussion including nearby neighborhoods. The expanded planning process, a continuation of the long-term effort to develop ?vision and policies? to promote the future of the unique local business district, was contained in a report the council was due to consider this week. However, council members decided to postpone the discussion because of the illness of Montrose Shopping Park president Dale Dawson, who is suffering from the flu. Councilman John Drayman, who led the shopping park board until his election to the council, suggested the delay, saying he felt the city?

Josh Kleinbaum Mayor Frank Quintero teed off on city staffers Friday, claiming they are bending the rules to accommodate developer Rick Caruso and his proposed Town Center project. But staff members and Quintero's colleagues on the council said staff is just giving the council options and facilitating a democratic process. "It seems that in this city, there is one set of rules for the general population and another set of rules for Caruso Affiliated Holdings," said Quintero, who opposes Caruso's project.

A 24-story luxury condominium, once touted as a symbol of a taller, more glamorous downtown skyline, has been redesigned as a six-story apartment complex under the pressures of tight financial markets. “My dream had become a nightmare for this site,” said Marc Nathanson - chairman of Mapleton Investments, which with Urban Partners LLC is developing the project - in describing the economic collapse after the original high rise was approved in 2008. Verdugo Gardens was to feature skygardens built into the facade on the 18th floor, each with a different theme.

An aggressive bidding war for the operator of the Burbank Town Center and Glendale Galleria may be in the works after the company filed a reorganization plan last week in bankruptcy court, a move that has brought the local malls a step closer to full health, experts said. The plan from General Growth Properties Inc. would allow it to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as two independent companies with the backing of $6.55 billion from three investors, the firm said. But more than establishing its own restructuring plan, the filing sets the stage for other firms, like rival Simon Properties Inc., to make takeover bids.

CITY HALL — A long-running effort to bring the Foothill Boulevard corridor under a unified set of design guidelines got a boost Tuesday from the City Council, which authorized the Planning Department to draft a new development plan for the north Glendale annex. The section of Glendale that extends up from Crescenta Valley Park, across the Foothill (210) Freeway between Pennsylvania and Lowell avenues and into the San Gabriel Mountains is one of four jurisdictional blocks that straddle the wide business corridor.

CITY HALL — It was less than a year ago when the City Council did the automotive equivalent of an engine rebuild for the Planning Department. New policy directives were handed down, the two Design Review Boards were reconstituted and given a new operating template, the Board of Zoning Appeals was disbanded, and Planning Director Hassan Haghani finished assembling his in-house design studio. Now, with the appointment of Robert Burman to the Planning Commission on Tuesday, all four planning-related boards and commissions are at full membership, the dust has settled, and a significant amount of work and adjustment for new commissioners awaits.

The Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning will begin taking public comment on its 2008 model of a draft general plan for the unincorporated county area on Wednesday. The document, titled ?Planning Tomorrow?s Great Places,? is the first major update to the general plan in more than 25 years. The plan will be discussed at the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission at 9 a.m. on Sept. 3. The commission will be briefed on the schedule for adoption of the plan, targeted for late 2009.

The Crescenta Valley Town Council got a glimpse of how big a population burst might be coming to the county in the not-so-distant future during its last council meeting. Unincorporated Los Angeles County — which includes portions of La Crescenta — is expected to be able to handle an estimated 57,000 additional housing units, according to a recently completed housing element portion of the county’s 190-page General Plan. The projected number of potential new families that could move into the area came as a shock for several council members at the June 19 Town Council meeting, when county representatives provided an update on the housing element portion of the plan.

A resident hoping to subdivide his .73-acre property off Willowhaven Drive and Rock Pine Lane met with opposition from neighbors and officials during two separate governmental meetings recently. Alex Rogic, who owns the lot at 2716 Willowhaven Drive, had hoped to gain support from the community and Town Council during a land use committee meeting May 15 prior to the regular Crescenta Valley Town Council meeting. That support was to have been sent on to Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning prior to a scheduled public hearing of the Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday morning this week.

Dual-language program discussed An informational meeting will be held for parents and community members interested in learning about the German dual-language program being developed at Franklin Elementary School. The dual-language program is planned to begin at the school for one or two classes of kindergartners in the fall. Any interested parent may attend, even if they have not completed their pre-enrollment forms for the program. Parents who have completed their pre-enrollment forms can pick up their enrollment packet at the meeting.

Officials seek input on plan funding City officials will host a community meeting on Feb. 28 to seek input from the public on Glendale?s proposed Community Development and Housing Action Plan for the coming fiscal year. The meeting will give interested parties the chance to learn firsthand about the city?s federal grant funding plan for community social service, housing and homeless programs. The plan will also help fund several capital improvement projects throughout the city.