HUNTINGTON BEACH : Neighbors Seek to Block Condo Plan

After years of opposition to developments planned for the Huntington Harbour Bay Club site, a group of neighboring homeowners tonight will try to block the latest proposal.

City approval for a condominium project at Warner Avenue and Edgewater Street, near Pacific Coast Highway, will be challenged in an appeal by Councilmen Wes Bannister and Jim Silva, who argue that the original environmental impact study is outdated. That study was for a 42-unit condominium project approved by the council in 1973 but killed by the California Coastal Commission. The new project proposed by Coultrup Development Co. would have 36 units and more parking and would not be as tall.

Usually, Bannister and Silva are among the council’s staunchest proponents of new development. But they support the neighbors’ position that the area has changed too much for the old impact report to be considered valid.

Barbara Devlin, one of the homeowners who has led the fight against various development proposals, said that although the new plans are scaled back, neighbors still consider the project too large a complex for the area, which has grown considerably during the last seven years.

But, while other residents want the property to be maintained as open space, Devlin said she would agree to two-story townhouses, similar to those in surrounding neighborhoods.

Although the original condominium proposal was approved by the city, the owner was forced to scrap the plans because of a coastal panel mandate that the beach part of the property be maintained for public access and because a seismic study revealed a major tangent of the Newport-Inglewood earthquake fault runs beneath the 3.26-acre lot.

Since then, the owner unsuccessfully proposed a series of developments, including a large hotel.