Huntington Beach’s Twin Towers Project Wins Approval, 5-0

The Huntington Beach Planning Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved McDonnell Douglas’ plan for a twin-tower office complex to house 2,000 new employees working on the $1.9-billion space station contract.

The towers project, approved on a 5-0 vote, would be built in two phases on the aerospace firm’s spacious manufacturing site, known as the McDonnell Douglas Space Center in northwest Huntington Beach. The high-rises would be the largest office complex in the city.

The debate followed a 1 1/2-hour public hearing Tuesday night that was attended by about 50 people. During the hearing, many residents of Huntington Beach and neighboring Westminster voiced opposition to the MDC Huntington Beach Office Park, as it would be called. City Council approval is not required for the project, but the commission’s decision can be appealed to the council.

Concerned Over Traffic

Opponents expressed concern about potential traffic jams on surface streets and freeway ramps in the area. Some opponents from Westminster said they feared that Bolsa Chica Road--a principal north-south arterial route stretching from the freeway to the coast--would be reduced to near-gridlock conditions.

“It’s a different city, but we are neighbors and we want to live in peace,” said Hans Goldsmith, 74, a resident of Westminster Village, a 550-unit condominium complex near the site, in expressing concern about the traffic that the new employees would generate.

Some residents claimed roads that would be affected by the project were omitted from traffic studies. But Weston Prindle, whose firm conducted the traffic study, said those streets would not be used by office park employees. His comment drew jeers from many in the audience.

Lorraine Faber, an environmentalist from Huntington Beach who lives close to the site, expressed concern that McDonnell Douglas would eventually convert the towers to commercial enterprises, which would bring more traffic than envisioned under the current studies. Although the Planning Commission would have to approve such a conversion, it will, Faber said, “because the city doesn’t want a 12-story white elephant on its hands.”

The project was endorsed by the Huntington Beach Planning Department, which recommended approval of the complex in a report issued last Thursday. In the report, the office park was described as a 605,000-square-foot complex designed with modernistic blue glaze and contrasting archways. One of the two towers would be 12 stories high, the other eight stories. Two restaurants and a retail business--perhaps a barber shop and a magazine stand--are also planned. They would cater to McDonnell Douglas workers.

Ask Road Improvements

The Planning Commission also directed city staff to work with McDonnell Douglas and Westminster city officials on that city’s concerns about traffic and air quality. Westminster has asked that the aerospace firm or the City of Huntington Beach agree to pay for an estimated $155,000 in road improvements.

City planners said the office park would be built on an 18-acre section of the company’s 250-acre site at the corner of Bolsa Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street, which is vacant except for a grove of eucalyptus trees. The sprawling property is surrounded on three sides by light industrial businesses, and by the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station on the west. A few hundred residences are located north and east of the property.

The space station contract is expected to generate about 2,000 new jobs--bringing McDonnell Douglas employees working at the company’s astronautics firm to 9,252 from the present 7,600, according to the city staff report.