Plan for Newport Beach’s first public pool located on the harbor

Source – MSN.com

Original Story by Erika I. Ritchie, The Orange County Register

A public swimming pool complex to include a 50-meter pool, a therapy pool, a splash pad and a building for events is moving closer to reality and could become the city’s next successful public-private partnership.

Recently, the Newport Beach City Council approved a change to the city’s general plan that allows the area at Lower Castaways Park to be zoned for development and accommodate the facility.

Newport Pool Site

The Newport Beach City Council is moving forward on plans to build a 9,000-square-foot building, 50-meter pool, therapy pool, splash pad, hand boat launch, and event venue at Lower Castaways Park in Newport Beach, CA. Traffic on Coast Highway moves over Newport Bay on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. © Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register/TNS

“It’s the birthplace of Newport Beach; it’s where they first came into the harbor,” Councilmember Joe Stapleton, who is passionate about seeing the approximately $47 million project go through, said about the Castaways location. “It’s the first landing spot when they discovered Newport Harbor. It’s such a shame that the founding spot of our city has essentially been a vacant storage lot.”

A rendering of what the public pool complex proposed at Lower Castaways Park would look like from the bay side. It would include a place to launch paddleboards and such. (Courtesy of the city of Newport Beach)

A rendering of what the public pool complex proposed at Lower Castaways Park would look like from the bay side. It would include a place to launch paddleboards and such. (Courtesy of the city of Newport Beach)

Located along Dover Drive and Pacific Coast Highway, the 4-acre property is mostly used to stage the city’s construction vehicles, store boats and for access to Back Bay. It’s also the city’s last undeveloped parcel adjacent to the bay.

The vote to rezone the area for what city officials say will be a public-private partnership follows multiple meetings by a city ad-hoc committee and a City Council study session held in October, during which all seven members raised their hands in support in an informal poll.

At that time, council members also approved money for architects and engineers to consider the project’s design. Other ideas from the community for what to do with the land had included an aquarium – an idea floated by two harbor commissioners – or an educational center.

Now that councilmembers have given the first steps their OK, the project will require at least a year of study and permitting and that will include extensive public input, officials said. They said construction could start in the winter of 2026 and be completed by spring 2028.

The pool would be the city’s first. Recreational programs are held in pools shared with the Newport Mesa Unified School District. But officials said the schedule there is already jam-packed with competitive school events, and programming has suffered because there is not enough time for both uses.

“When you think about Newport Beach, the world-class athletes, the swimmers, the water polo players, they’ve had to go outside the city to compete in anything,” Stapleton said.

The centerpiece of the swim complex would be a 50-meter pool suitable for lap swimming, year-round swim lessons, and a water polo league, among other uses.

There would also be a heated therapy pool that would provide opportunities for senior therapy programs, water aerobics, aqua yoga, and injury rehabilitation programs. The center would also include a 360-square-foot splash pad. The complex would house meeting rooms and there would be a place for launching kayaks and other human-powered vessels.

“I just want to create a world-class venue where people can enjoy the aquatic nature of Newport Beach,” Stapleton said. “So people don’t have to go out of town for swimming, for water polo, lessons and therapy. This splash pad for toddlers, we’re kind of touching all ages here, from newborns to legacy members of our community who are looking for therapy. It’s a good opportunity to showcase the aquatic nature of our city.”

It is estimated it would cost about $1.5 million a year to operate the facility.

Stapleton said the project will be a public-private partnership like the Newport Library Lecture Hall now under construction and the Newport Beach Junior Lifeguard building that opened this summer.

“The most important thing about this is that it’s a public-private partnership,” Stapleton said. “The reality is this is going to be funded 50% from the city and 50% from the community. We’ve got a lot of people that are really excited by this. It’s just a great opportunity.”


Source – MSN.com

Original Story by Erika I. Ritchie, The Orange County Register

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This week I’d like to recognize critical, often unsung members of our City team who perform a vital service during rainstorms: the Utilities Department crews that pump storm water and operate the tide valves on Balboa Island and the Peninsula.

The valves, which were built in the 1970s to replace a system from the early 1900s, are necessary to prevent flooding in low-lying areas. They are manually operated, and need to be closed during high tides to prevent seawater from flooding the streets. Once the tide recedes, crews reopen the valves — nearly 90 in total — to allow water to flow from streets to the bay.

In some ways, on some days, we all live trashy lives.

Even an inadvertently dropped gum wrapper via the forces of gravity, wind, and water runoff finds itself in company with all manner of discarded detritus heading to our oceans and beaches.

Trash is strictly a human byproduct. Just walk Newport’s sands after a crowded summer day. Or stand by the outflow of the Santa Ana River, or the entrance to the Upper Bay estuary post-storm to witness the “flood” of trash tangled in broken foliage washed downstream, to either float offshore, rest on our beaches or become locked in the life-giving vegetation of the Back Bay.

In some ways, on some days, we all live trashy lives.

Even an inadvertently dropped gum wrapper via the forces of gravity, wind, and water runoff finds itself in company with all manner of discarded detritus heading to our oceans and beaches.

Trash is strictly a human byproduct. Just walk Newport’s sands after a crowded summer day. Or stand by the outflow of the Santa Ana River, or the entrance to the Upper Bay estuary post-storm to witness the “flood” of trash tangled in broken foliage washed downstream, to either float offshore, rest on our beaches or become locked in the life-giving vegetation of the Back Bay.