Setback for fans of beach fire rings
Judge rejects assertion that removal would cause irreparable damage to Newport.
A legal effort to block the removal of concrete fire rings from the seashore in Newport Beach was rejected Friday by an Orange County Superior Court judge, clearing the way for the city to move forward with efforts to reduce the number of beachfront bonfire pits.
The ruling comes as a battle over beach bonfires plays out between regulatory agencies and in the state Legislature. Though some believe the woodburning fire rings present health concerns from the smoke that’s blown into oceanfront neighborhoods, others see them as a harmless and visitor-friendly Southern California tradition.
Friends of the Fire Rings had asked for the emergency action in late December, saying that if the city was allowed to remove the fire pits, it could do irreparable damage by eliminating a resource for beachgoers.
In November, the group filed suit against the South Coast Air Quality Management District in an attempt to negate parts of its regulations on beach burning that the agency approved in July.
“Nothing mandates replacing fire rings if the [AQMD’s regulations] are invalidated,” said Corona del Mar attorney Melinda Luthin, who represented Friends of the Fire Rings.
She said the regulations constituted an “abuse of government power.”
Still, Judge Robert J. Moss said he didn’t see the possible removal of fire rings as rising to the level of irrep- arable harm.
“I don’t really see there’s an emergency,” he said. Moss disclosed at the beginning of the hearing that he lives in Newport Beach and had done some work for the city when he was a practicing attorney but didn’t feel that there was enough of a conf lict to recuse himself from the case.
Despite the ruling, it’s unlikely that any of the fire pits will be removed soon.
Newport Beach City Atty. Aaron Harp said after the hearing that the city plans to seek permission for reducing the number of rings from the state Coastal Commission, which has opposed the plan previously.
That process could take years.