Copyright Los Angeles Times
The Newport Beach City Council listened to two hours of public comment from residents on both sides of a proposal to replace part of the Newport Beach Golf Course with an artificial wave pool before greenlighting the project during a meeting this week. Not only had the city received about 2,000 letters addressing the topic, but about 100 people packed council chambers at City Hall Tuesday, with more than two dozen lined up to offer public comment. Several described themselves as both surfers and golfers and expressed sympathy to those whose views fell on opposite sides of the issue. “This is hard, because that was my friend speaking just now,” one woman, who declined to state her name, said of a neighbor ahead of her in line who’d provided public comment counter to the woman’s own sentiment. The Snug Harbor surf resort will be built in an area currently occupied by the course’s driving range, putting green and restaurant as well as holes 1, 2 and 9. The remaining 15 holes will remain, according to plans shared by the project’s developers, Back Bay Barrels LLC. “I think this is going to be a world-class amenity,” Councilman Erik Weigand said. “It does what the opposition wants it to do: it saves golf.” Opponents of the project say the Newport Beach Golf Course is the only affordable place in the area for people to learn and practice the game. It costs about $40 for a round of golf, far less than the $224 to $425 charged at Pelican Bay or annual membership fees required at other courses. “This land may be privately owned, but for decades it’s been a public treasure, a true neighborhood beacon,” said Benny Hallock, chairman of Save the Newport Beach Golf Course. Hallock and others rallied in front of City Hall prior to Tuesday night’s meeting. “Veterans find peace here. Seniors stay active,” Hallock said. “Families can afford to play together, and local schools use it to teach and compete. Over 130,000 rounds of golf and 90,000 buckets of range balls are played here every year. That’s a real community impact.” Others who spoke out against the proposal questioned the need for a manmade wave pool in coastal Orange County. They noted the proposed development site is mere miles away from several popular surfing spots. Despite its proximity to the ocean, a high school surfing coach supported the project. “I’m on the beach every single morning, and I’m training a team,” Brian Melstrom, a coach for both surfing and golf at Newport Harbor High, said. “Oftentimes it’s flat, it’s windy, it’s blown out. There’s a lack of conditions to train. To have a facility like Snug Harbor that we could train in once, twice a month, it’s 100% going to level up our surfers.” Melstrom and other backers said the park would give surfers, swimmers and lifeguards the ability to hone their skills without the inherent risk of training in the ocean. They also said creating a safe, controlled environment for surfing would make the sport accessible to a broader cross section of the community. Environmentalists like Heather Ciselack, operations director for the Newport Bay Conservancy, were among those opposed to the surf park. She said the project would reduce the amount of grassland available for local wildlife to build suitable habitats. “You’re going to see more wildlife on a golf course than you are going to see at a surf park,” Ciselak told the Daily Pilot after Tuesday’s meeting. “So it’s unfortunate, this open space degradation overriding, with the amount of development in what is considered parks and recreation (zoning).” She and others opposed to the development maintained it would increase the city’s water consumption. They also said noise from the wave-generating machines or large events held at the surf park would become a nuisance to nearby residents. Snug Harbor supporters pointed out the property is directly under the flight path of planes landing at John Wayne Airport, which are significantly louder than any of the proposed activities at the surf resort. City staff said the increased water consumption of the wave pool would not have a significant impact on the Newport Beach’s water supply. “What a first-world problem,” Mayor Joe Stapleton said. “As the mayor of Newport Beach, I can’t agree more with that. When there’s other municipalities that are dipping into their reserves, balancing their budgets and having real-world problems in their communities, here we are discussing whether we want a world-class wave park or do we want to continue to have golf.” The land the golf course sits on is privately owned, and stretches over city lines into unincorporated Orange County. City staff said county officials intend to keep a golf course in that location, mostly due to the limited allowable uses zoned for property that close to the airport. Shawna Schaffner, a spokeswoman for Back Bay Barrels LLC., described the proposal as a “reinvestment in a very tired property.” Councilmembers spoke fondly of the course and days out on the green spent with family and friends. But many also said they felt an obligation to protect the property owner’s right to lease it to a business of their choosing. They also hailed it as an exciting new enterprise that has the potential to bring more visitors and commerce to the city. The panel approved the project 6-0, with Councilman Noah Blom abstaining due to a potential conflict of interest.
