Newport Beach leaders are continuing to study replacing part of the city’s sculpture garden with a new police station amid questions on whether or not the site can support new construction and pushback from residents over losing part of a cherished park.
While city council members unanimously agreed the police station needs to be replaced, citing regular plumbing issues, electrical outages and a recent electrical fire as signs the building is reaching the end of its usable life, they did not make a final decision on where the new station should go.
But council members made it clear the sculpture garden site next to city hall is currently one of the front runners, citing it as the cheapest option that would keep the police station centrally located in the city for roughly $162 million and directing staff to study moving it there.
Councilman Erik Weigand said that while they may not move forward with demolishing the sculpture garden, city staff have to look at its potential, calling it “the most viable option.”
“Maybe it’s not even feasible,” Weigand said at the council’s Tuesday evening meeting. “Until I know that answer to be definitive and true and exact … I want to analyze the site right here.”
City staff also flagged several other sites for possible construction, including buying new property for a station near the civic center, rebuilding on the police station’s existing site on Santa Barbara Drive or on a chunk of city owned land on Dove Street near the airport.
Police Chief Dave Miner didn’t explicitly support any of the sites on Tuesday night, but said he wanted city leaders to look for a way to keep the station centrally located, and asked not to move into a temporary site during renovations at the existing Santa Barbara station.
“I think it would create significant disruption were that to happen,” Miner said. “I also think operationally it’s beneficial to be centrally located.”
Most of the dozens of residents who spoke at the meeting pushed back on demolishing the sculpture garden, urging city council members to either build a new police station on Dove Street or buy new property in the city center.
“We all love the police, we love the firemen, we all want to do the best for them,” said Nancy Skinner, who also helped write the supporting statement for the ballot initiative that created the city hall and the park. “I just think we have to keep it out of the park.”
Several residents said there’s a lack of transparency around the process, highlighting that city leaders chose not to publicly discuss the options at the end of last year and waited until January to bring forward proposals publicly.
[Read: Newport Beach Leaders Look to Bulldoze Portions of Garden for New Police Station]
“My belief in the value of public engagement is what leads me to be ultimately disappointed,” said one commenter. “An ad hoc committee based on three council members cannot claim to be acting on the public’s behalf.”
Council members pushed back on the claim that the process was not transparent, with Weigand saying nothing “nefarious” went on behind closed doors as Councilman Noah Blom insisted it was a necessary step to discuss it before bringing it to the public.
“The idea of transparency, not engaging, I have to say it doesn’t exist,” Blom said. “It feels like we’re actually running through a pretty good process on this.”
Both Blom and Weigand pushed to narrow the city’s focus exclusively to the sculpture garden site, saying they had no interest in redeveloping the Santa Barbara or Dove Street properties.
The sculpture garden site is already owned by the city, but there are open questions about a drainage system set up beneath the site and a ballot initiative that pledged the park would remain as open space in 2007.
Councilwoman Robyn Grant brought up concerns that delays due to environmental problems or a lawsuit connected to the ballot initiative could unnecessarily back up development of a new station, and was the only vote against studying the civic center site.
“The question before us is not whether to build a police station, but where,” Grant said. “This park was promised to the voters as our city’s premiere public space. It is a defining element of this campus.”
The future of both the Dove Street and Santa Barbara properties remains up for grabs, with multiple council members pitching ideas to sell the properties to help fund the new police station’s construction.
“Instead of saddling debt onto every taxpayer in Newport Beach, I want to sell a building to buy a new facility,” Blom said.
“I listen to what everyone has to say. But sometimes the job is not to be governed by emotion. The job is to be governed by the reality that I don’t want to force anyone else to pay more to pay for emotion.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.