• 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)

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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IMPORTANT: California Water Board

Hello friends of the Newport Harbor Foundation,

There is an urgent issue we need a little help with… something that impacts one of our favorite local playgrounds – the Newport Harbor.

After years of lobbying the federal government for help, the City of Newport Beach has obtained grants of almost $16 million to pay for dredging of the harbor which will significantly enhance the quality of water and create safer boat passage in the harbor. Along with the dredging process, there is a process called CAD (contained aquatic disposal) which places unsuitable material now existing in the harbor into a safe and secure location deep below the harbor bed. This process is totally safe and has been used for many years all over the country, including harbors in California.

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ABC Water Wheel

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By Phillip Palmer
ABC Eyewitness News, Los Angeles

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — Keeping garbage out of the ocean isn’t easy. So enter Mr. Trash Wheel, the 70-square-foot barge gobbling up garbage by the ton to keep the beach and ocean pristine.

Trash in the streets ends up in the river and then from the river, the ocean.

Hoping to reduce the amount of trash making it to the ocean, Newport Beach is set to become the first west coast city to use a water wheel system to scoop up trash headed toward Upper Newport Bay.

“We really need to knock that trash load down. This is not going to be a silver bullet, it’s not going to get everything, but it’s going to get a big slug of stuff,” said John Kappeler, a senior engineer for the city of Newport Beach.

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On the Waterfront

By Matt Morrison

For a generation of youngsters who grew up around the Newport Harbor, there’s a legacy to perpetuate. OK, maybe they’re only considered youngsters on a geologic scale, yet together they’ve accumulated decades of passion for the fabulous waterway central to our community. The goal now is to preserve it for generations to come.

We might compare it to fixing up a stately landmark home; the curb appeal is still magnificent but the bones need attention. Dennis Durgan can certainly relate to the analogy.

A residential real estate professional in the community for more than four decades, Durgan grew up on the harbor, beginning in the early 1960’s when it was a seasonal recreation destination. He learned to sail here, then went on to crew in three America’s Cup competitions working with both Ted Turner and Dennis Connor. Now it’s a cause for the future, and not just his own.

“There are numerous issues the harbor has, and will continue to have, as we move forward. There’s more and more people that want to use it,” Durgan explains. “I used to call it the sandbox. Well, the sandbox is overflowing with kids that want to play.”

“With all of their toys…” chimes in Val Lyon, like Durgan, a board member of the Newport Harbor Foundation, established in 2019.

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