Ficker, group turn in petition

Unless there were errors or duplications in the signatures of more than 6,000 voters, a measure to build Newport Beach’s city hall next to the central library looks headed for the ballot.

Proponents of the City Hall in the Park initiative turned in 15,028 signatures to City Clerk LaVonne Harkless on Friday in their quest to get the measure on the February 2008 ballot. To qualify, they needed 8,997 signatures, representing 15% of the voters registered when they first announced the measure.

Architect Bill Ficker and other supporters delivered the signatures in 10 boxes after retrieving them from a bank vault, where Ficker said they were stored for fire safety. The petitions, apparently signed by nearly 25% of the city’s registered voters, will be checked for validity by the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

The deadline to check the signatures is Oct. 9, so it should be clear by then whether the measure qualifies for the ballot.

Harkless said she received requests from 29 people who want their signatures removed from the petitions, but no more may be removed now that the petitions have been filed.

The ballot measure would change the city charter to require Newport Beach’s city hall be built on a 12.8-acre parcel of city land next to the central library on Avocado Avenue. City Council members have voted repeatedly to pursue other sites for a city hall, and an opposition group called Parks Are Priceless is fighting the initiative.

The Avocado Avenue parcel was designated as open space in 1992, and opponents of the city hall measure say long-standing plans for a park there shouldn’t be changed.

“Newport Center Park has been designated a park site since 1992 and voters reaffirmed the park in the 2006 General Plan Election”, Jean Watt of Parks Are Priceless said in a prepared statement. “To try and force the city, through this initiative, to build a new city hall on this park site is an outrage.”

The group also contends it would be more expensive than other options the council is exploring. A city-commissioned study showed building at the park site would cost about $55 million and a nearby alternative was about $65 million, but both sites may carry other unknown costs, and the council is now looking at a new site for which no cost information is available.

The possibility of council consensus on the newest proposed site — an Irvine Co. property in Newport Center — hasn’t prompted Ficker to abandon the ballot measure.

“If they come up with a better site and all of the voters think that’s a better site, they’ll vote,” he said. “We don’t have any comment on the site. It’s too early.”