
Robinson's report can be read here.
We're grateful to the the City Council for its wise and prudent decision.
The Internet town hall of Protect Newport Beach County Club, a coalition of citizens, businesses, and community leaders dedicated to the protection of the Golf Club at Newport Beach Country Club and the Tennis Club at Newport Beach Country Club.
You can read the Pilot's excellent editorial below and here.
Ever since the Daily Pilot's Alicia Robinson revealed in her November 18 story that the City had issued a Notice of Appraisal to the landowners of the Tennis Club property (an action that signaled it was contemplating the use of eminent domain to seize the property), the Newport Beach community's response has been swift, resounding and unequivocal: The Tennis Club at Newport Beach Country Club is not an option as a City Hall site. And, equally, the taking of it by means of eminent domain violates the spirit of Measure W.
Given the community's response - and, now, the Daily Pilot's caveat to stay away from the Tennis Club - it's time for Newport Beach to drop any designs it has to build an expensive City Hall facility on this site.
We don't dispute that our city's dedicated staff needs a state-of-the-art facility to serve Newport Beach in the 21st Century and beyond. But there are other more viable sites in the City that won't spark - as the Pilot predicts - "a knock-down, drag-out battle that the city hasn't seen in years."
Here is the Daily Pilot editorial:
What a year Newport Beach has had. It all started in January with a Rose Parade float, ridden by none other than then Mayor Don Webb, that commemorated the city's 100-year anniversary.
That event was soon followed by a multitude of centennial events that kept the city partying for the better part of 2006.
And there was political news as well. The voters, for the first time ever, were asked to elect six out of seven council seats in November. That number was inflated because of the unusual number of council seats that had been filled by appointees after elected council members had resigned.
In addition, a massive general plan amendment was approved, and Greenlight suffered its worst ballot box defeat ever as the Son of Greenlight was turned away by voters.
Then, of course, there was the ongoing debate over where to build the new city hall, which continues today.
Enter new Mayor Steve Rosansky. Webb handed the gavel over to him last week and we wish him all the best as he steers the ship in 2007. He'll have plenty of issues to contend with as well, and we have one bit of advice for him on the latest city hall question.
Stay clear of the Newport Beach tennis club.
Thankfully, Rosansky's recent public comments seem to indicate that he will indeed stay clear. And that's a good thing.
Going after the tennis club, which is part of the Newport Beach Country Club and golf course, would be a knock-down, drag-out battle that the city hasn't seen in years.
Robert O Hill, the managing partner of the group that owns the parcel, has vowed that he isn't selling, which means the city would need to take an eminent domain path if it wanted the property.
That would be ill-fated for a number of reasons. Coupled with all the legal battles and legal bills that would follow, the council needs to remember one thing. The reason Greenlight and its supporters were able to flourish for so long was because they were able to successfully tap into the public's distrust of previous councils and the perception that council members just didn't listen to their constituents. Pursuing eminent domain on the tennis club would just inflict an unnecessary black eye on the council at a time when it's enjoying a modicum of goodwill with the voters.
So happy holidays to all in Newport Beach. We believe the city is in good hands with Steve Rosansky and the rest of the council — new and old alike.
Protect NBCC wishes all of Newport Beach happy holidays as well.
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Register reports on Newport's eminent domain threatThe Orange County Register today kicks off its reporting on the City of Newport Beach's potential use of eminent domain against the Tennis Club property. You can read Register staffer Jeff Overley's story - appearing on Page 3 of today's Local news section - here.
Worth noting is Councilmember Don Webb's comments regarding the sensitivity of seizing property through eminent domain.
"Condemnation is extremely sensitive," Webb tells Overley. "You have to go through an appraisal process, go through negotiations, make an offer." Webb's trinomial equation is probably right. The problem is, at least one part of that equation isn't even in play if O Hill's comments to the Daily Pilot's Robinson are any indication. When the landowner says the property is not for sale, then what is there to negotiate?
Also interesting in Overley's report is the extent to which the City has exercised the power of eminent domain in the past. Previous land takings by the City, according to Overley's report, include the condemnation of two Santa Ana Heights homes, the condemnation of three mobile homes to widen Pacific Coast Highway, and the taking of property for a new parking lot.
It's these kinds of government actions - we believe - that ignited Newport Beach voters to pass Measure W by nearly an 8 to 2 margin.
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NBCC Founding Members Fire Back...
In the Sunday, December 3 edition of the Daily Pilot, Newport Beach Country Club Founding Members Ron Foster and Dick Schroeder - both long-time residents and well respected gentlemen in the Newport Beach community - wrote a compelling indictment of the City's interest in taking the Tennis Club property at Newport Beach Country Club to build a new City Hall.
In addition to being Founding Members of the Newport Beach Country Club, Foster and Schroeder are also past presidents of the NBCC Board of Governors, and members of the NBCC Equity Committee.
Foster's and Schroeder's column is a must read. We've posted the column below. You can also read the column here.
COMMUNITY COMMENTARY: Hints of eminent domain
By Ron Foster and Dick Schroeder
When the Newport Beach City Council placed Measure W — written by Councilman Keith Curry — on the Nov. 7 ballot, our city's leadership was essentially asking the voting public to voice its opinion on the concept of eminent domain in principle and Newport Beach's limited use of it specifically.
We answered the call. Measure W was overwhelmingly approved with 76.4% of the vote, receiving more votes, 22,517, than any of the council candidates in their respective districts. Our message? That eminent domain is abhorrent to our deeply held American values that private property rights are inviolable, and that our property isn't for government's taking.
Just 11 days following the vote of the people, the Nov. 18 edition of the Daily Pilot splashed a front-page headline reporting that Newport Beach was — according to outgoing Councilman Tod Ridgeway — in talks to acquire the seven acres currently occupied by the tennis club at the Newport Beach Country Club.
The property — the cherished and longtime home of the tennis club and an important social and recreation asset in our community — is the latest parcel our city is eyeing as the new home for a city hall.
Councilman Ed Selich offered more detail in the story, telling the Daily Pilot that "we're appraising the property." In fact, the landowners — Golf Realty Fund, of which lifelong Newport Beach resident Robert O Hill is the owner — has received a notice of appraisal from the city.
The problem is that the property isn't for sale.Quite the contrary. O Hill, Newport Beach Country Club, the Founding Members of the Newport Beach Country Club, the membership of the tennis club and the management of IBC have invested thousands of hours and significant financial resources over the last four years developing a compelling master plan for a new tennis clubhouse, a new stadium court, a spectacular new golf clubhouse and a new country club parking lot filled with olive trees and a 700-foot landscape buffer along East Coast Highway. As well, a small cluster of one-story, five-star bungalows on a portion of the excess tennis courts, for use by visitors and guests of club members, is also part of the master plan and will help pay for the multimillion-dollar improvements.
That the master plan exists — and, in fact, was submitted to the Newport Beach planning department a year and a half ago — should be proof enough for the city that the tennis club property is not for sale and not going away. With the Nov. 7 passing of the general plan amendment, the master plan and the dreams of the members of Newport Beach Country Club can now become a reality.
It should be deeply troubling to the residents of Newport Beach that its government is spending taxpayer money for the appraisal of property that isn't on the market. Only one alarming conclusion can be drawn from this dumbfounding action: That the city of Newport Beach is laying plans to seize the tennis club property under eminent domain in complete contradiction to the will of the voters as expressed in their overwhelming support of Measure W.
The citizens of Newport Beach should not tolerate even the entertainment of such an action.
Never mind that the taking alone of the tennis club property — combined with the damage claims from the larger property — would drain taxpayers of more than $70 million, or that the city would lose a tremendously valuable part of its social and recreational heritage. Never mind that the building of a new city hall on the tennis club property would disrupt the tranquillity and aesthetics of Newport Beach Country Club.
Forget, too, that such a taking would effectively scuttle the master plan, including the new golf clubhouse, preventing the Newport Beach Country Club from enhancing the word-class experience that draws the Toshiba Classic to our city. And ignore that the PGA's Toshiba Classic — which raises about $1 million a year for Hoag Hospital and pumps more than $30 million a year into our local economy — opposes a city hall facility within Newport Beach Country Club and supports the new golf clubhouse and the bungalows to help draw top players and their families to the event. Finally, shelve for the moment the untenable quality-of-life effects the residents of the Granville and Irvine Terrace communities will endure with a city hall facility camped next door.
Instead, the red flashing light and alarm bells that should be going off in the heads of Newport Beach voters are warnings that their city government is contemplating taking private property not one month after voters told it not to go there; that eminent domain is anathema in Newport Beach.
Rest assured, the respective members of the Newport Beach Country Club, the tennis club the residents of Granville and their families — a force of some 5,000 people — will vigorously contest any attempt by the city of Newport Beach to take the tennis club property.
RON FOSTER AND DICK SCHROEDER are past presidents of the board of governors, members of the equity committee, and founding members of the Newport Beach Country Club.