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Newport to try streamlined permit process for outdoor dining

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Outdoor dining in Balboa Village may soon become more common after the Newport Beach City Council approved a proposal to streamline the permitting process.

The council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to kick off a pilot program intended to make outdoor dining permits easier and less expensive for restaurants to obtain in the commercial district known as Balboa Village.

The pilot program will require a business owner to submit an application with a project description and plans showing the proposed dining area. However, the business will not have to pay a permit fee or wait for a public hearing. Instead, city staff will decide within a week whether to approve the application, taking into account potential effects of light, loitering and noise, according to a staff report.

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In June, the Balboa Village Advisory Committee voted to forward its proposal for increased outdoor dining to the council as part of the group’s efforts to revitalize the aging area of the Balboa Peninsula.

Mayor Pro Tem Diane Dixon said the outdoor lifestyle in Balboa Village lends itself to open-air dining opportunities.

“There’s a lot of foot traffic, people riding bikes outside,” she said. “We’re all focusing on figuring out how we can make Balboa Village into an even more pedestrian-friendly village.”

Restaurant owners who wanted to serve food outdoors often have expressed frustration at the city’s long and costly permitting process. Outdoor dining typically requires a new or amended use permit, which can cost thousands of dollars and take months to obtain.

“It was a frustration we heard from a lot of small-business owners,” Dixon said. “We wanted to come up with a way to get businesses up and running faster without running into roadblocks.”

The city plans to evaluate the pilot program in 10 months to determine whether it should be continued permanently or expanded to other areas of the city.

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Street sweeping changes approved

An abundance of trash on Lido Isle streets and a shortage of parking in Corona del Mar prompted the City Council to alter the street sweeping schedules in those areas of Newport Beach.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to make the changes within the next two to three weeks.

On Lido Isle, city staff used to collect trash by hand from containers on the sidewalk or from the landscape adjacent to the curb on the same days the streets were swept. In 2014, the city outsourced its residential trash collection services to CR&R, and with the new automated collection came larger trash cans that had to be placed on the street during sweeping days. As a result, the street sweepers had to move around the trash cans, and litter was left in the gutter, according to city staff.

The north side of Via Lido Nord and the south side of Via Lido Soud are currently swept between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays. The south side of Via Lido Nord and the north side of Via Lido Soud are cleaned from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Fridays.

Under the new schedule, the sweeping days will be reversed. The times will stay the same.

Corona del Mar has faced street sweeping challenges stemming from business owners’ complaints that the four-hour no-parking requirements were adversely affecting their stores.

In an attempt to reduce the effects on businesses that depend on street parking, the council decided to reduce the time allotted for street sweeping.

Corona del Mar streets currently are swept between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

According to the new schedule, the area bounded by East Coast Highway on the north, Bayside Drive and Pacific Drive on the south and Avocado Avenue on the east will be swept from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, the area bounded by Bayside Drive and East Coast Highway to the north, Hazel Drive on the east, Ocean Boulevard on the south and Carnation Avenue to the west will be swept from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays.

The rest of the community will be swept from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.

After signs showing the new hours have been placed around Lido Isle and Corona del Mar, officers will issue warnings to people parked in no-parking areas during street sweeping. The officers will not cite for 30 days to allow residents and visitors to adjust to the new hours.

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