Corona del Mar's October 3rd Thursday Is a Working Draft of the Village Plan
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
On Thursday, October 15, Corona del Mar Village will run for three hours much like the "main street" the City of Newport Beach has spent two years studying. There will be pasta on the sidewalk, oysters in a courtyard and a trolley parked in a garden's lot, with people on foot along PCH from shop to shop. The city's corridor proposals would make many of those uses easier to permit, and they are paused between a study session and a public hearing that has no date yet. For the evening, the event is a preview of that plan.
3rd Thursdays started in 2025. It is a seasonal series held on the third Thursday of April, July and October throughout CdM Village along PCH. It is free and family-friendly, and attending means walking the street. The organizers call it a grassroots effort. Mayor Lauren Kleiman, local businesses and volunteers coordinate it, and more than 70 local businesses support it. The Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce lists the hours as 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. The Chamber's page prints the October date as the 16th. That is a Friday, though, and the third Thursday of October 2026 is the 15th, which is the date Visit Newport Beach lists. The series also posts updates on Instagram at @3rdthursdayscdm.
The October lineup leans toward dinner:
The family side of the street is just as specific. There's mini pumpkin painting at Grounded Coffee House, a petting zoo at B.CANDY, a live reptile zoo at the Corona del Mar Branch Library, adoptable pets at Corona del Mar Animal Hospital and Halloween window painting for kids at Mark Patterson Fine Jewelry. SCAPE Gallery is hosting an artist reception curated by Hanna Slak.
The biggest gathering point is in a parking lot. One of the new Newport Beach Trolleys will sit in the Sherman Library & Gardens lot at Dahlia Avenue and PCH, along with inflatable carnival games, a Hazeltine's pop-up, CdM High School and the CdM Residents Association.
The city launched its Corona del Mar Commercial Corridor Land Use and Mobility Study in summer 2024. The stated goal is zoning, parking and infrastructure changes that would make the corridor a "walkable and connected 'main street' destination." In April 2026, city staff presented a slide deck to the Corona del Mar Residents Association, and the CdMRA has posted it. Set beside the October lineup, it reads much like a description of the event.
| On the street October 15 | What the April 2026 city draft proposes |
|---|---|
| Sidewalk pasta at Foretti's, courtyard oysters at SideDoor | Outdoor dining on public and private property, with approval moving from a use permit amendment or administrative permit to Director-level review |
| Happy hours and dinner specials up and down PCH | Restaurants without late hours move to Director-level review. Restaurants with late hours, live entertainment or dancing move from a Conditional Use Permit to a Minor Use Permit |
| A Newport Beach Trolley parked at Dahlia and PCH | Trolley or local circulator expansion, with "May 2027" on the slide |
| Crowds and activities filling the Sherman lot | Leasing private lots for public parking, plus parking apps and signage |
| Wine on the table at Cugini Italia Market | Wine tasting rooms, not allowed today, would become possible with a Minor Use Permit |
The Cugini row describes a category of use. It says nothing about any business's plans. The draft table compares existing zoning with proposed zoning for each use, and the gaps it closes match the kinds of things that make this evening work.
Parking is the hardest problem in the study, and the night's busiest spot happens to be a private lot opened to everyone. When the Daily Pilot covered the City Council study session in November 2025, it reported that the trouble is less a shortage of spaces than spaces locked inside private lots. Staff suggested leasing those private spaces and showing their availability by app or digital signage.
The April deck goes further. It proposes parking restaurants at the default retail rate and allowing them in any tenant space, with or without on-site parking. The slide is also explicit that this comes with "no parking waiver." To handle the extra demand, the deck lists parking apps, private lot leases, curb management such as valet and drop-off, the trolley and bike lane improvements. The longer list of proposals adds in-lieu parking fees, a pilot program for valet on public side streets, and possibly buying property for parking.
The trolley in the Sherman lot also works as a preview. The deck pairs the trolley with "May 2027," but it doesn't describe a finished route. On October 15 it is a photo stop.
A walking event on a state highway raises the crossing question, and the draft gets specific here. One slide shows an Orchid Avenue crossing concept with signage that reads "Stop on Red, Proceed on Flashing Red When Clear." Other slides list work at the MacArthur Boulevard intersection, median dynamic signage, bulb-outs, sidewalk extensions for dining and parkways, pedestrian wayfinding and bike concepts. The bike concepts include infrastructure leading to and along Fifth Avenue. The deck states a goal of permits or authorization for these improvements by the end of 2026. The same deck showed digital beach-parking signs for Corona del Mar Main Beach with an installation target of June 19, 2026. That date was a target, and the source doesn't confirm that the signs went up.
Every item in the table above is still a proposal. Here is the formal sequence so far:
The April deck had targeted "late summer 2026" for both hearings. That timing has passed, and no hearing date has been set. The city's project page offers an interest list for notices about future meetings, and that's the most direct way to hear when the hearing is scheduled.
The 3rd Thursday falls in the middle of a busy week at Sherman Library & Gardens:
Hazeltine's is the restaurant Sherman plans to open on site. In May 2026, Stu News Newport reported that owner Damian Orozco, who also runs The Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano, is partnering with Executive Director Scott LaFleur, and projected a fall 2027 opening. The tea service and the pop-up in the lot are previews of that restaurant.
The village's next big evening is the 47th annual Corona del Mar Christmas Walk on Saturday, December 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is free, presented by the Chamber, and benefits the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots program. By then, the corridor amendments may have a hearing date, or they may still be waiting for one.
If you own near the CdM Village corridor and want to understand how a changing main street fits into your home's story, Julianne Pierzak can walk you through it on a personal, local level. Request a home valuation and we'll start there.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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