On the Agenda: March 10 City Council Meeting

The next regular City Council meeting is Tuesday, March 10 starting at 4 p.m. The full agenda can be found here.

 At next week’s City Council Meeting, there will be a study session to review several upcoming Capital Improvement Program (CIP) projects, including significant street repairs, traffic improvements and turf replacement at Bonita Creek Park. Each year, the City prioritizes infrastructure projects that help maintain and improve the services and amenities our community uses each day.

The study session will also include an evaluation of potential sites for the future Newport Beach Police Department headquarters.   

There has been a lot of community conversation about this project. So I'll add my voice, too.  First the "why" are we planning this now.

Building a new police station is complex and it takes time to plan carefully and do it right. If we start the planning process now(and we have), a realistic timeline to open a new facility could be around seven years. Maybe a little sooner, maybe a little later.

We moved into our current Police Headquarters in November of 1974. In seven years, that building will be about 59-years-old. That’s not just “vintage,” that’s a facility that was designed for a very different era of policing, technology and building standards. 

The next issue is "where" do we put a new Police Headquarters?

Staff will walk through this in more detail at the study session, but here’s the quick version of why some options are challenging:

1201 Dove Street (purchased in 2022): This site is further from the center of town, which could increase response times in situations where we need to surge resources quickly. It’s also not ideal for day-to-day civic operation. Most City business happens at the Civic Center, and meetings with the Mayor, City Council, Police Chief and City staff typically happen at City Hall.

Rebuilding on the current Santa Barbara site: This option is highly complex and disruptive, and it will require temporary offsite parking and operational workarounds during construction. Unlike a home remodel, the Police Department can’t just put up a sign that says, "Closed for Renovations."  Public safety isn’t something we can pause for a construction project, so we have to plan in a way that keeps police services steady from start to finish.

In today’s market, buying a new, centrally located site to acquire enough land for a modern police facility is prohibitively expensive.

Finally, this is one reason the Civic Center campus is being looked at as a concept. We already own it, and it is central to how our City operates. That said, it’s important to emphasize that this is an evaluation, not a final decision, and we are still at the very beginning of the process. I recognize that there may be concerns regarding loss of open space, environmental impacts, impacts to art and other issues.  All very valid concerns that need to be addressed. As we move forward, we would bring in qualified consultants to assist with design concepts and study any potential impacts.

At this stage, the City is still in the early design and feasibility phase, and no final decision has been made regarding a project scope. As the process continues, additional analysis and community feedback will help inform the City Council as they consider the best long-term solution for the City. Public safety remains one of the City’s highest priorities and ensuring that our police officers and first responders have facilities that support modern operations is an important part of serving our community now and for generations to come.

I encourage the community to attend the Study Session and to visit the City’s information page on the Police Station at NewportBeachCA.gov/Trending/Projects-Issues.

Seimone Jurjis

City Manager, sjurjis@newportbeachca.gov 

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City Council Meeting Information

The Newport Beach City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of most months (the exceptions are August and December). Typically, the council meeting begins at 4 p.m. If scheduled, the meeting will start with a study session. Study sessions allow the Council to take a deeper look at a specific issue or hear a presentation that may later lead to more formal action. The regular session immediately follows the study session. If no study session is scheduled, the meeting will begin with the regular session. Items on the consent calendar are heard all at once, unless a councilmember has removed an item from the consent calendar for specific discussion and separate vote. If an item on the agenda is recommended to be “continued”, it means that the item won’t be heard nor voted on that evening, but will be pushed forward to another noticed meeting.

Public comment is welcomed at both the study session and the regular session. The public can comment on any item on the agenda. If you want to comment on a consent calendar item that was not pulled from the consent calendar by a councilmember, you will want to do so at the time listed on the agenda. If an item is pulled, the Mayor will offer that members of the public can comment as that specific item is heard separately. Additionally, there is a specific section of public comment for items not on the agenda, but on a subject of some relationship to the city government. If you cannot attend a meeting and/or want to communicate with the City Council directly, this e-mail gets to all of them: citycouncil@newportbeachca.gov. The City Manager also gets a copy of the email, to ensure that there is appropriate follow-up.

The Council meets in the Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive, off of Avocado between San Miguel and East Coast Highway. There is plenty of parking in the parking structure. You are always welcome to attend in person, but you can also watch on TV, Spectrum channel 30 and Cox channel 852 or stream it on your computer.

On the Agenda is not an attempt to summarize every item on the agenda – just the ones that seem of specific interest to the City Manager. You are encouraged to read the full agenda if you wish.

To subscribe to direct email communications from the City Manager's Office, including From City Hall to You and On the Agenda, please click here. 

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