State Flooded With Pierside Project Criticism : Development: The Lands Commission gets calls and letters from those opposing any new buildings on the beach at Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.

The State Lands Commission in Sacramento is being flooded with mail and phone calls from people opposed to the Pierside Village project, an attorney for the commission said Friday.

Curtis Fossum, senior staff counsel for the state agency, said in a telephone interview that more than 1,000 letters and petitions have flowed into the commission’s office from people opposed to any new buildings on the beach at Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

“Some of these letters are coming from people all over the state--people who know Huntington Beach and don’t want development on that beach,” Fossum said. “But most of the letters and calls are from residents of the city.”

The letter and phone call campaign is organized by two groups in the city that are opposed to plans for Pierside Village. Part of the city’s downtown redevelopment, Pierside Village would have two new restaurants and several small shops on land now held by the city as a public easement.

The city attorney’s office, in an effort to clear title to the land so it can be redeveloped by private owners, filed routine legal documents asking all agencies concerned in the development proposal to give their approval for the change.

To the surprise of city government, the State Lands Commission balked.

Fossum, representing the commission, said last month that the agency opposed the proposed new buildings because they would restrict the public’s free access to the portions of the beach controlled by the commission.

Under state law, the commission has jurisdiction over all the coastal lands extending from the high-tide mark to three miles out to sea.

The land proposed by the city for Pierside Village redevelopment extends from Main and Pacific Coast Highway to Lake Street. It now contains Maxwell’s Restaurant and several paved parking areas. Pierside Village calls for a new Maxwell’s Restaurant and two other new eating establishments, complemented by a plaza-like area of fountains, walkways and small shops.

Two organizations lobbying for managed growth, Huntington Beach Tomorrow and Save Our Parks, have led the opposition to Pierside Village. Both contend that the construction would reduce the public’s access to and views of the ocean.

Jonathan Chodos, a West Los Angeles developer in charge of Pierside Village, has said in rebuttal that the project will visually enhance the beach area and actually make it easier for people to walk through to the beach. Chodos noted that the area is already paved over.

City officials have said they are negotiating with the State Lands Commission over its objections to Pierside Village.

Huntington Beach Tomorrow and Save Our Parks, fearing that the commission could waver in its opposition, have urged people to sign a petition or send letters to Sacramento. An advertisement, with the petition opposed to Pierside Village, appeared earlier this month in a weekly newspaper circulated in the city.

“We’re still getting stacks of mail,” Fossum said Friday. “A lot of it is the petitions, but there are also a lot of handwritten letters, as well as phone calls and post cards.”