Assistance League Seeks Better Price for Progress : Members Reject Huntington Beach’s $253,000 Offer for Old Buildings Standing in Path of Renovation

One of the few blighted areas remaining along Orange County’s golden coastline is downtown Huntington Beach, and now that is destined to become only a memory. When the bulldozer dust finally settles in five years over this 336-acre, five-block area, there will be a $50-million hotel, a $25-million pierside village, a picturesque plaza and a town center housing shops, restaurants and offices.

The first building scheduled for the wrecking ball is the 46-year-old headquarters of the Assistance League of Huntington Beach at 301 Walnut St. After two years of negotiations with the city, the charity is putting up a last ditch fight to get what members feel is a fair price for the buildings so they can relocate and continue their services.

The league maintains that the city’s offer of $253,000 for its properties on Walnut and Main streets is far too low. The city says the price, from an appraiser it appointed, is fair because the area is economically depressed. But league president Marsha Johnston says the two buildings are only a block from the beach, and members want a price they believe the property is worth on today’s market. They have hired an appraiser to come up with a figure of their own.

“I don’t think we can let it go without some kind of fight,” said a determined Carol Burgener, league property chairman.

According to Michael Adams, principal redevelopment planner for Huntington Beach, the city doesn’t have much choice. “We appointed an appraiser, E. R. Metcalfe of La Canada, who said the properties are worth $55 per square foot. By state law, we have little latitude for negotiations once the appraisal is made. The league can hire their own appraiser and appeal to the courts for the difference. That is an option open to them.”

Lawyer Retained

And this is exactly what the Assistance League may do. It has retained Charles E. McClung Jr., a partner in the law firm of Fleming, Anderson, McClung & Finch in Laguna Hills that specializes in condemnation cases.

“I don’t agree that the city is locked in by their own appraiser’s figure,” McClung said, “because the law says Huntington Beach cannot go below the appraised figure. The high figure is open to negotiation.”

Many other property owners or tenants in the area--mostly small businesses--have been willing to move because the city is paying for their relocation, and they point out that a legal challenge over disputed prices would be costly.

The league once operated a thrift shop and School Bell service at 233 Main St. to clothe needy children, but it abandoned that building. “The redevelopment plans have been pending for so long we never kept the (Main Street) building up, and with the city’s new and very tough seismic ordinances, as well as the building codes, it would have been impossible for us to afford the required renovations,” Johnston said. “And, too, the condition of the building made the liability insurance premiums outrageous, so we just had to abandon the place.”

Notice to Move

As a result, the league crowded all its programs, including a speech clinic, into the Walnut Street building, but the city has served notice for the league to move this month.

Members are packing up their thrift shop and School Bell program, but it is taking some time to get their new location ready, and they have been unable to find a place to move their speech clinic, with its expensive testing machines.

Burgener, league property chairman, said: “We have looked, city officials have looked, but there is nothing available (in the city, where they must remain because of their league franchise) for that kind of money ($253,000). Our group has sometimes traveled as many as 85 miles in one day checking out property but have come up empty-handed.”

The search has been almost farcical at times. “The city first offered the back offices in the old library,” Burgener said. “When we went to see it, we found some other city department had already given that space to the Community Playhouse.”

From there the city directed them to the Southern California Edison building. “But then we found out the city is still negotiating for that building, which means it is not available,” Burgener said.

As a result--in desperation, Johnston said--the league leased a 2,727-square-foot building at 16582 Gothard Ave. between Heil and Warner avenues in an industrial tract. But it can accommodate only the thrift shop and School Bell projects, she said. “That leaves us with no place for our speech clinic and meeting area.

The move puts the league in a financial crunch because it owned the Main Street shop outright and didn’t have to pay rent.

Problems at New Location

Now, Johnston said, “the rent is $1,750 per month plus utilities. In the Main Street thrift shop we grossed about $3,000 a month and had foot traffic to help sales. There will be no foot traffic in the new location, and we will have to spend money on advertising and promotion if the thrift shop is going to continue to fund our other programs.”

The speech clinic retains Irvine speech pathologist Susan Levine two days a week. She sees an average of 11 clients during that period, charging what the client can afford to pay, with the league underwriting the balance.

For three years, Levine has “helped children and some seniors with all types of speech problems from stuttering to those caused by physical traumas such as strokes or shock,” Johnston said. “She has also helped children who could not speak at all but are now capable of putting sentences together and are now able to communicate.”

The clinic serves Huntington Beach, Westminster, Fountain Valley, as well as Costa Mesa.

In spite of the frustrating, two-year search for a new building, league leaders expressed no bitterness. “Actually, all of the city officials have been very understanding,” Burgener said. “They included the Main Street property in the first phase of the redevelopment so we could dispose of both of them at the same time to qualify for the total amount of money all at once.”

The league’s coming up with a higher asking price may run up against some powerful opposition. Huntington Beach Mayor Jack Kelly said: “There is nothing we elected officials would like better than to help every charitable group in the city, but it is a fact that when you move from a blighted, economically depressed area like the downtown section of Huntington Beach, you are just going to have to pay more money for something comparable in a better area.”

Johnston countered: “We have no argument with the city because all of the officials have been polite and cooperative. We are not against redevelopment of the downtown area.

“However, the league provides services that would cost the city a great deal of money if they had to pay for them, and we only want what is fair and equitable.”