HUNTINGTON BEACH : Land Title Dispute Is Headed for Trial

The controversy over plans for the Pierside Village development, which call for building more restaurants on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway, is now headed for trial in Orange County Superior Court.

A court commissioner Friday declined to hear the city’s request to dismiss a suit in which the State Lands Commission argues against giving full title to the land involved to the city.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Robert G. Collins said the commissioner ruled there was not enough time before the trial date to schedule a hearing on the request for a summary judgment. The trial is scheduled to begin March 12.

“The city had hoped to knock the state out of the lawsuit before the trial, but they weren’t able to do that,” Collins said.

The State Lands Commission, represented by the attorney general’s office, is fighting the city’s proposal to gain full legal title to about two acres immediately south of the Huntington Beach Pier now occupied by parking lots. The city wants to lease out the land between Main and 1st streets for a multimillion-dollar redevelopment project that would involve at least two new restaurants. Currently, Maxwell’s is the only restaurant on the beach side of the highway.

The city does not own the land but has a right of way on it for public access, and the Lands Commission has argued that the city must guard that public access and not use it for commercial development.

The city, in rebuttal, has argued that the public would be better served by building a restaurant area and plaza that people of all ages and the handicapped could visit.

Environmental groups have led the opposition to Pierside Village, arguing that the development would be “visual pollution” to the public beach. Several business groups support the proposal, saying it would change “an ugly paved area” into an “accessible, landscaped” plaza.

The City Council approved the Pierside Village project in concept on Tuesday night. Work on the project cannot begin until the city gains title to the land, however, and whether it will is to be decided at the trial.

The Pierside Village project is a key element in the massive city redevelopment project now under way in the area around the intersection of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.