Council Scheduled to Vote on Plan to Limit Pier Hours

A proposal to close the city’s Newport and Balboa piers from midnight to 5 a.m. is scheduled for a vote at Monday’s City Council meeting.

The council last year gave City Manager Kevin J. Murphy the authority to close the piers if complaints persisted about debris left by anglers.

Murphy’s office is also recommending the installation of video cameras to monitor illegal activity, working closely with the piers’ concession owners to ensure maintenance and stepping up police enforcement.

“For some community groups, the recommendations will not be enough to completely and thoroughly achieve their goals,” Murphy said in his report to the council. For fishermen, he said, the recommendations may seem “too restrictive and unfair.”

For two years, merchants and homeowners in the area have been at odds with Newport Pier anglers over how to keep people from cleaning fish on the benches and casting their lines overhead.

“I feel they are trying to railroad the poor guys out of the city,” said Joe Imbriano, a fishing enthusiast and activist.

Others, such as Ted Post, an Orange resident who has been fishing in Newport Beach for 45 years, said the recommendations are sound. “Everything was fine for 43 years until the policing was reduced,” he said. “We’ve been asking to bring it back to normal. This will help keep the drunks off the pier at night.”