Huntington Beach Votes to Condemn 5 Downtown Parcels

Calling it a crucial step toward the long-awaited renaissance of downtown, the Huntington Beach City Council voted unanimously Monday night to begin eminent domain proceedings against owners of five parcels on which parking garages are planned.

In doing so, the seven-member City Council did what previous councils had resolved not to do: They ordered the properties, located just inland from Pacific Coast Highway, condemned.

The angry property owners told the council that they vigorously support redevelopment planned for the downtown area, saying they believe sprucing up the neighborhood will increase their property values. But some complained that the city hasn’t offered a fair price for their land. They also accused some city officials of painting them as villains whose interest in profits had put the brakes on the city’s effort to renovate the 300-acre area into a Mediterranean-style development of restaurants, shops and hotels spreading from Golden West Street south to Beach Boulevard.

“No one from the city has ever asked what we want to do with our property,” said James Koller, an engineer who owns two of the five properties that were condemned Monday night. “They spent all their time deciding what they wanted to do with our property.”

Among the properties are a former Crocker Bank building now rented to businesses, a double lot leased to a Volkswagen repair shop for parking, an apartment building and a vacant lot.

A previous City Council, acting as the Huntington Beach Redevelopment Agency, passed a resolution several years ago banning the use of eminent domain proceedings in the sprawling downtown redevelopment area unless two-thirds of the property owners in any given project favored that option.

However, City Atty. Gail C. Hutton said Monday that the council is not bound by a resolution passed by that Redevelopment Agency. Further, she said, the city now owns more than two-thirds of the property since it recently acquired several parcels of land near the properties to be condemned, all in the general area bounded by Walnut and Orange avenues and 2nd and 7th streets.

Hutton said the process of eminent domain was considered after the city had made unsuccessful offers to buy the parcels, and city officials determined that they had “exhausted their efforts to peacefully acquire the properties.”

The property owners were given 15 days’ notice of the council hearing on the five separate condemnation actions.

Monday night, the council decided that the public interest and necessity required the acquisition of the parcels. A judge will now decide whether the public need for the land is greater than the private property owners’ loss and what a fair price should be.

Land consolidation has been a significant handicap in the city’s 20-year quest to redevelop downtown Huntington Beach. Without ownership or control of the land, the city has been unable to do anything with it.

But landowners such as Koller, who support the idea of redevelopment, vehemently opposed eminent domain powers that give cities the authority to buy private property at fair market value for public use.

Estimate of Value

Koller said the city offered him $293,000 for two lots at 314 5th St. He said he thinks that the land he and his wife, Joan, have owned since 1979, is worth $600,000. Located on the property is a one-story building that houses four businesses: his own real estate firm, another real estate agency, a medical lab and the office of the Huntington Beach News.

Koller also owns two adjoining properties--at 302 5th St. and 303 Main St., where the bank building sits. Escrow on the property closed March 31. He says the county tax assessor has valued the property at $1.2 million, but he thinks that it is now worth $1.8 million. The city, he said, offered him $748,200.

“I bought the buildings with the idea of them increasing in value with redevelopment. . . . We’re not going to be cheap when we look for an attorney on this one,” Koller said. “I’m bitter.”