The article was submitted by OCCNPS member Laura Curran regarding a proposed police station to be constructed on the site of Newport Beach’s Civic Center Park. The park features a landscape of native plants in a Coastal Sage Scrub habitat, walking trails, and sculptures.

On March 10,  the Newport Beach City Council proposed to a plan build a Police Station in Newport Beach’s Civic Center Park.  I am reaching out to ask for your help to keep the Civic Center Park intact as a biodiverse habitat. 

Newport Beach Civic Center Park– an OC Native Plant Landscape

This large central park located in the Newport Beach Civic Center area welcomes visitors to explore and experience Coastal Sage Scrub plants and the birds, bees, and butterflies that depend on them.

Civic Center Park and OCCNPS

CNPS Orange County has been integral to the development and flourishing of Civic Center Park since its inception in 2005, including: 

• Former OCCNPS director Celia Kutcher helped identify, collect, and replant rare species found at the park site. 
• Ron Vanderhoff, director of the Orange County California Native Plant Society (OCCNPS), provided some of the initial botanical studies in 2008. in 2014, he completed the Newport Beach City Hall Park Botanical Inventory which identified over 160 species in the park. 
• Mike Evans, founder of Tree of Life Nursery, and a Newport Beach native, joined the Park project as a consultant to Peter Walker Partners. Tree of Life botanists propagated and planted thousands of Coastal Sage Scrub plants from local cultivars at the Civic Center Park site. 

Police Station Proposed for the Park

The City is currently convening an Ad Hoc committee to consider police station sites, and has approved $1.5 million to study the Civic Center Park as a possible site. 

Call to Action 

1. Write to Newport Beach City Council  to SAVE CIVIC CENTER PARK, expressing your concern about the proposal to build a Police Station in Civic Center Park. 

2. Watch the Video featuring an image of the proposed two-story police station and three-story parking lot and share it with your friends on Instagram and Facebook. Ask them to contact Newport City Council or express their concern on social media. 

3. Post your photos of Civic Center Park including the plants, the bunnies, and the sculptures to social media.

4. A meeting is scheduled for May 13 where Newport Beach Mayor Pro Tem Noah Bloom and former Mayor Keith Curry will present the pros and cons of the proposal. The meeting is open to the public and held at the Civic Center Community Room, 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach from 6 to 7 p.m.