Newport animal shelter boosters explore ideas for a new facility

The Friends of the Newport Beach Animal Shelter would like to build a new home for wayward dogs and cats, but it doesn’t want to go far.

The shelter has been operating in a small shared space in Santa Ana Heights since the city broke away from the Orange County Humane Society in late 2015 amid allegations by city staff of unsanitary and inhumane conditions at the Huntington Beach facility.

“Unfortunately, we’re leasing” the current site at 20302 Riverside Drive, said Nancy Gardner, a Friends board member and a former Newport Beach mayor. “One of our concerns is the need for a permanent site.”

Gardner and other Friends members took their early ideas for a new facility to a Wake Up Newport breakfast meeting Thursday at the Newport Beach Central Library.

Board member Jon Langford, who leads the facilities committee, said the group would prefer to build in the same area — which is zoned for kennels — but also is looking elsewhere in town, mostly on land the city already owns.

“We have the necessities covered for the animal shelter, but we want to be even more proud of what it can be,” Langford said.

The group sees the Oasis Senior Center in Corona del Mar as a successful example of a public-private partnership, he said.

The Friends formed last year to financially support the Newport shelter, focusing on advanced veterinary care and a new permanent facility.

The animal shelter has shared space for about two years with the nonprofit Home Free Animal Sanctuary, which has its own no-kill dog rescue. The facility can hold up to about 45 animals, said city animal-control officer Jesse Castro.

The shelter doesn’t euthanize for lack of space or because an animal is a long-timer, Gardner said.

[email protected]

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD