Newport Beach Harbor Commission approves changes to Harbor Design Standards

NEWPORT BEACH—The Newport Beach Harbor Commission approved changes and updates to the Waterfront Project Guidelines and Standards – Harbor Design Criteria, Commercial and Residential Facilities (Harbor Design Standards), at its Oct. 14 meeting. The changes now go to the City Council for review and approval.

The Harbor Design Standards provide a complete set of rules for marine construction, berthing layout and other general issues within the harbor for city residents, marine contractors and city staff. The standards are updated periodically as technologies or engineering criteria change or to incorporate other related policies such as sea level rise and bulkhead heights.

At the August and September Harbor Commission meetings, staff reviewed the Harbor Design Standards and noted some preliminary proposed updates based on outreach to the dock construction industry and engineers as well as internal staff suggestions. One substantive proposed update was related to single residential use floats in west Newport channels. Public Works Administrative Manager Chris Miller said after consulting with dock engineers, city staff suggested removing the requirement of an 18-foot minimum distance between the backside of a float and the bulkhead. The recommended change would allow dock designers and engineers to determine the appropriate distance to the bulkhead based on soil conditions at each dock. The change would not eliminate the farthest any dock could extend into the canal, which is 30 feet.

Other substantial changes dealt with concrete piles and the details of how they’re made.

Commissioners provided additional feedback at the August and September Harbor Commission meetings. Commissioner Marie Marston provided a slew of clarification and updates, which were incorporated into the document.

“Most of the corrections that we’ve made are cleaning up, clarifying, making it look a little better,” Chris Miller said.