Hearing Is Today on Control of Beachfront Near Huntington Pier

In the years before World War II, a municipal saltwater plunge, a filling station and a cafe stood, at various times, north of Huntington Beach Pier as year-round magnets for visitors.

Today, the 2 1/2-mile stretch north of the pier is largely uninterrupted on the sand side of Pacific Coast Highway, except for scattered oil derricks, sea birds, surfers, sunbathers, a seaside condominium complex--and a parking lot.

A public hearing will be held tonight on a plan calling for city operation of the 2 1/2 miles of state-owned beachfront stretching north from Main Street, and a controversial proposed beachfront parking structure. The hearing will be held during the regular City Council meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.

At issue is who should run the strip of beachfront now being leased by the state to the City of Huntington Beach. “(The city) didn’t think the state took as much care as we would with the beach--they needed more lifeguards, there was no landscaping except what we did on the bluffs,” said Mike Adams, the city’s redevelopment director.

With the Bolsa Chica State Beach General Plan Amendment, the city is proposing to operate the state beach, provide marine safety, public improvements such as restrooms and showers, and access points to the shoreline where none now exist.

The city also wants to build a multilevel parking structure on the existing parking lot just north of the pier, a restaurant located somewhere within, and a park on top of it.

The parking structure and plans for the restaurant--while conceptual and preliminary--have generated the most controversy because opponents believe the structure could block ocean views from the street.

The Huntington Beach Planning Commission on Sept. 15 approved the overall proposal as drafted by city planners but added some amendments. The Planning Commission voted against including the restaurant and a surf museum that had been proposed for the pier-side parking structure.

If the City Council approves the general plan amendment, the state Parks and Recreation Commission will ultimately vote on the overall project plan at a Dec. 1 public hearing in Huntington Beach City Council chambers.

City officials argue that the existing parking is not big enough to hold all the cars that will visit downtown once the decaying commercial area undergoes a planned redevelopment.

Opponents of the proposed parking structure, including a slow-growth organization called Huntington Beach Tomorrow, which claims about 400 members, are against building any new structures on the beach and argue that the city is using state land to subsidize a private enterprise.

They also were referring to Pierside Village, a restaurant and shopping complex to be built by Carlsbad developer Bryant Morris immediately south of the pier. In approving the development earlier this year, the City Council decided that adequate parking for Pierside Village had to be constructed before ground was broken for the village project itself.

But Morris’ development will eliminate several parking spaces, and additional parking will be lost when Pacific Coast Highway is widened. That means that additional parking must be located elsewhere but still within walking distance of the planned Mediterranean-style village project. City officials say the proposed parking structure would solve that dilemma.

“Pierside will not be jeopardized one way or the other, though,” said Adams. If the council decides against the plan, he said, “we’ll just have to find a place inland for the parking.”