Newport Beach planning commission recommends surf park despite tribal, environmental and airport concerns

The Newport Beach Planning Commission voted unanimously Sept. 4 to recommend City Council certify the environmental impact report and approve entitlements for the proposed Snug Harbor Surf Park at 3100 Irvine Avenue, moving the project a major step closer to final decisions at the council level.

Planner Jocelyn Perez told commissioners the proposal would convert the central portion of the privately owned Newport Beach Golf Course into a surf facility featuring two 5-million-gallon lagoons, a roughly 50,000-square-foot, three-story clubhouse, a two-story athlete accommodations building of about 9,400 square feet with 20 rooms, ancillary structures, and 351 parking spaces with solar canopies. Perez said the project requires a general plan amendment to increase the development intensity for Anomaly 58 (about a 39,772-square-foot increase), a major site development review, a conditional use permit for outdoor commercial recreation and alcohol sales, a modification permit for retaining walls higher than eight feet, and certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) with an associated mitigation monitoring and reporting program.

Why it mattered: supporters said the surf park would expand year-round surf access and lifeguard training opportunities, create economic and youth-sport benefits, and use solar canopies to offset a portion of the project's energy needs. Opponents raised worries about loss of affordable public golf, heavy excavation and the likelihood of encountering tribal cultural resources, potential runoff into the Santa Ana Delhy (Del‑High) channel and Upper Newport Bay, overnight accommodations near homes, and a finding of inconsistency from the Orange County Airport…