HUNTINGTON BEACH : 2 Slow-Growth Units Fight Pierside Plan

Two slow-growth organizations are stepping up their opposition to the controversial Pierside Village project by circulating petitions for voter signatures and mailing them to state officials.

The groups, Save Our Parks and Huntington Beach Tomorrow, are passing out petitions opposing the construction of three restaurants on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway between Main and Lake streets.

The Pierside Village proposal earlier this year drew criticism from the state attorney general’s office and the State Lands Commission. Attorneys in those offices said they would fight the city’s effort to get clear title to beach land so that restaurants could be built.

The land in question, immediately south of Maxwell’s Restaurant, is paved and used for parking lots. The city has said the redeveloped land would be more useful to beach-goers as a village-like area of restaurants, plazas, fountains and flower stalls.

Save Our Parks and Huntington Beach Tomorrow, however, have said the development would create visual blight and less public access to the beach.

The petition the two groups are passing out says: “In their negotiations, city officials are telling the state that the residents of HB are in favor of this development and that the state should drop any claims to this land. If that happens, Pierside Village is as good as built, and you can say goodby to more of your beach. If you’d rather see sand and water instead of cement, it is important that you take a minute and spend a quarter to mail this (petition) now!”

The completed petitions are being mailed to the State Lands Commission in Sacramento.

Debbie Cook, chairwoman of Save Our Parks, said Friday that thousands of completed petitions have already been mailed to the State Lands Commission.

“We decided to do this because the city kept telling us that the State Lands Commission was going to settle with them on the Pierside Village question,” Cook said. “This is a way of letting the State Lands Commission know that this (project) is not something the people want.”