Dear Community Members,
At next week’s City Council meeting, staff will present the City’s General Plan Update during the study session. You may be wondering what that means and why it matters. In short, the General Plan is Newport Beach’s long-term roadmap, guiding how the City grows, evolves and makes decisions through 2050.
This is the first comprehensive update since 2006! While it builds on the City’s foundation, it reflects today’s priorities, including balancing housing needs with quality of life, coastal resilience and new opportunities around emerging technology and innovation. It also places greater emphasis on implementation, making the plan more streamlined and easier to use as a guide for future decisions. To avoid any confusion, the General Plan Update does not include the 6th Housing Cycle Housing Element, which the City Council has already adopted.
This update has been several years in the making, with extensive community input, public meetings and collaboration with residents across the City. I want to be sure to thank the many residents who volunteered their precious time to serve their community to work on this important document(s). A Big Thank You to all of you! We could not have done this without you!
If you are interested in learning more about the update, please visit NewportBeachCA.gov/GPUpdate.
At the same time, this conversation relates to another important effort now getting underway with planning for the future of the Airport Area. Our next community village. The City is beginning work on a Specific Plan for this part of Newport Beach, located along the northern edge of the City near John Wayne Airport. Spanning roughly 360 acres, the area is currently a mix of offices, hotels, limited commercial uses and some housing. It is one of the City’s key opportunity areas for long-term planning.
The Airport Area Specific Plan (the working name, not the official name) will help establish a vision for how this area evolves over time, bringing together land use, housing, transportation, open space, infrastructure and urban design. Given its proximity to major freeways, employment centers and natural resources like the Back Bay and San Joaquin Marsh, it plays an important role in shaping the City’s future.
We are at the early stages of this process, and community input will be essential. The first pop-up event will be on Saturday, May 2, at the Newport Harbor Farmers Market (798 Dover Drive) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To learn more or to take the survey, please visit NewportBeachCA.gov/AirportAreaSpecificPlan.
As always, community input is central to our City projects, and we'll keep you informed as these discussions move forward.
Warmly,
Seimone Jurjis, City Manager
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