What Newport Beach's Planning Commission decided
The Planning Commission met Thursday, July 9, 2026 at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers, 100 Civic Center Drive. These are items from the posted agenda; the roll-call results are summarised above. Every item links to the official record.
Source: official agenda (PDF) · meeting detail and vote record
✅ What actually passed (confirmed from the Planning Commission’s roll-call vote record): All seven commissioners — Rosene, Salene, Ellmore, Langford, Gazzano, Reed and Harris — voted Aye on both public hearing items, 7-0 each, with no absences and no dissent. The commission approved the 1301 Dove Street residential development as amended, adopting Resolution No. PC2026-020 granting the Major Site Development Review and Vesting Tentative Tract Map for a 139-unit, for-sale townhome community on the existing office site (PA2026-0046), on a motion by Harris seconded by Salene. It then approved the CDM Investors Residence at 2516 and 2518 Bayside Drive, adopting Resolution No. PC2026-0021 granting the coastal development permit and variance (PA2022-0148), on a motion by Ellmore seconded by Chairperson Rosene. Newport Beach’s Planning Commission minutes for this meeting remain in draft status, so these results come from the commission’s own roll-call record rather than an adopted minutes document. The agenda also carried an election of officers and the June 18, 2026 minutes; the vote record shows no roll call recorded for either, so this page does not state an outcome on them.
The headline: a ten-storey office building on Dove Street is cleared to come down and be replaced by 139 for-sale townhomes — and it passed without a dissenting vote.
🏠 1301 Dove Street: 139 townhomes replacing an office tower
- Approved as amended, 7-0. A request to authorise a 139-unit, for-sale residential townhome community on an existing professional office site at 1301 Dove Street. Units run from two to four bedrooms and approximately 1,425 to 2,362 square feet, spread across 50 buildings of one to eight units each, with a maximum height ranging from about 33.5 feet to 39 feet above established grade. Item 3
- Parking and public access: a two-car garage for every unit, 10 driveway parking spaces and 42 uncovered guest spaces — 330 on-site spaces in total. A publicly accessible pedestrian strada with landscaping and seating is provided along the Dove Street frontage, and vehicular access comes from a single Dove Street driveway.
- Two phases: phase one demolishes the existing parking structure and builds approximately 76 units on the rear half of the site; phase two demolishes the existing approximately 218,000-square-foot ten-story office building and builds the remaining approximately 63 units on the front half.
- What the approval consists of: a Major Site Development Review (required for any project of five or more residential units with a tract map, and here also allowing deviations from three objective design standards under NBMC Section 20.48.185) and a Vesting Tentative Tract Map subdividing the 6.46-acre site into four parcels, with airspace subdivision of the individual units on two of them. The project was found statutorily exempt from CEQA under Public Resources Code Section 21080.66, enacted through Assembly Bill 130.
🏖️ CDM Investors Residence, 2516 and 2518 Bayside Drive
- Approved 7-0. A coastal development permit to demolish an existing duplex and construct a new three-story, 3,037-square-foot single-unit dwelling with an attached 479-square-foot two-car garage and a 285-square-foot junior accessory dwelling unit. Item 4
- The variance — from Title 20 (Planning and Zoning) and Title 21 (Local Coastal Program Implementation Plan) of the Municipal Code — allows a second-floor balcony to encroach 2 feet, 6 inches into the required 5-foot rear setback abutting an undeveloped alley, and allows walls, planters and a retaining wall over 8 feet in height within that same 5-foot rear alley setback. The project also includes the removal of landscaping within the adjacent City-owned Bayside Park.
- The commission found the project exempt from CEQA under Section 15303, Class 3 (New Construction or Conversion of Small Structures), and adopted Resolution No. PC2026-0021.
🪑 Also on the agenda
- Election of Planning Commission officers — Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary — to be nominated and appointed by majority approval, either individually or as one motion. The posted agenda also asked the commission to find the action not subject to CEQA under Guidelines Section 15060(c)(3). The vote record contains no roll call for this item, so the outcome is not confirmable from the official record. Items IV / 1
- The minutes of the June 18, 2026 meeting. No roll call is recorded for this item either. Item 2
- A motion for reconsideration, a report by the Community Development Director, requests for excused absences, and staff and commissioner items. Items 5–7
Council Brief summaries are produced from official public records by our automated newsroom and reviewed before publication. Items are described as posted; the council may amend, continue, or remove items at the meeting. Spot an error? hello@councilbrief.com — we publish corrections.
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