HUNTINGTON BEACH : Neighbors Appeal Bay Club Project OK

A group of Huntington Harbour homeowners, undaunted by the City Council’s approval of a condominium complex they worked for eight years to block, have taken their case to the state Coastal Commission.

While the Coultrup Development Co. continues grading and other preparations to build the 36-unit, four-story complex at the Huntington Harbour Bay Club, the residents on Tuesday formally appealed the project.

The neighbors opposed to the complex planned on a three-acre Warner Avenue site east of Pacific Coast Highway argue that the buildings would block their scenic ocean views and that the project’s environmental impact report, approved in 1983, is no longer valid.

If the commissioners uphold those complaints, they could modify or overturn the City Council’s Jan. 8 approval, said Tereseta Logan, a Coastal Commission program analyst investigating the appeal, which commissioners are scheduled to consider in mid-March.

“The city has said that this will not bother anybody’s views, but I went around walking through the neighborhood the other day . . . and between 50 and 75 homes will be losing their gorgeous ocean views,” said Barbara Devlin, the homeowner leading the opposition.

Jon Coultrup, whose Seal Beach-based firm is developing the project, has emphasized that his complex is smaller than a 42-unit proposal the council and Coastal Commission both approved previously. And at the council’s Jan. 8 meeting, several local residents sided with the developer, saying they were willing to settle for the scaled-down project.

The protesting homeowners say they would prefer Coultrup build single-family homes or town homes on the property, similar to those he said he plans for an adjacent lot.

Coultrup is in the process of buying the second three-acre site--where the town homes are proposed--which would complete his purchase of the entire Huntington Harbour Bay Club. The club, which in recent years has been reduced to a banquet facility, is scheduled to close April 1.