Huntington Beach wants more time to decide whether to OK concerts on the city shore

The Huntington Beach City Council wants more time to gauge whether to allow ticketed, full-scale concerts on the city-owned beach after hearing an applicant’s request Monday to hold a country music festival on the south side of the pier.

The council voted 5-2 to direct the city manager to arrange a study session within 30 days to further explore the potential policy shift. Councilwomen Jill Hardy and Lyn Semeta dissented.

Bolsa Chica and Huntington state beaches routinely host concerts, but the last one on city-owned sand took place following the U.S. Open of Surfing in 2013, when a rowdy crowd vandalized downtown businesses and several police officers were injured.

The council’s vote did not approve or deny Activated Events founder Steve Thacher’s proposal for a Country Harvest Festival on Oct. 7 but opened a discussion on how the city would like to proceed when promoters ask to hold concerts on the beach.

Thacher’s festival would feature singer-songwriter Billy Currington as the headliner of a bill with multiple acts, as well as line dancing, “fall-themed” food and a pumpkin patch. Tickets to the event would be capped at 8,000, and 8-foot fencing would contain the festival area.

Thacher said he would hire about 75 festival-trained security guards.

Opinions varied among the seven council members, but the main concern was how their decision would affect future requests for concerts on the beach as well as public safety.

Thacher’s festival would be one of several events in October, including a luau festival on the pier seeking approval for the same day.

Though a concert on the city beach could help local businesses generate additional revenue, city staff asked council members to consider residents’ noise complaints from previous shows at Bolsa Chica and Huntington state beaches.

The proposed country festival “sounds like a lot of fun,” Councilwoman Barbara Delgleize said, but she added that the city has worked “really hard these past years” to create a different environment for the U.S. Open of Surfing. Since the 2013 unrest, the surfing competition has scaled back by eliminating concerts, an expo and related activities.

But city staff said it gets a request every year for a concert on the beach.

Delgleize asked Police Chief Robert Handy for input and whether he was comfortable with 75 security guards for the country festival.

“There’s a lot I have to say,” Handy told the council. “This is a major policy shift for us.”

Since he arrived in 2013, police and city staff have advocated against concerts on the beach, Handy said. He listed concerns about traffic, crowds forming outside the fenced area and people spilling out onto Main Street after the festival.

The city doesn’t have a buffer between the beach and Main Street, unlike the state beach, Handy said.

Handy said he would support whatever the council decides but said a shift in policy would be “complicated” for city staff.

Mayor Mike Posey suggested a policy allowing ticketed concerts outside the 100-day period from Memorial Day to Labor Day in which the California Coastal Commission allows beach events but requires a special permit.

“We’ve had problems with free ones, not fenced ones,” Posey said, noting a “big distinction” between the two.

Hardy and Semeta spoke against changing the policy. Hardy recounted receiving the news of the chaos that broke loose after the U.S. Open in 2013.

“My job is to protect the city, and I’ve been watching state concerts thinking this is a problem waiting to happen,” Hardy said. “I doubt it’ll be at a country festival, but they’re not the ones to get blamed. We are.”

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscella