HUNTINGTON BEACH : Land Donation Pact Modified by Council

After receiving letters from the State Lands Commission and the state attorney general’s office, the City Council on Thursday modified a proposed land donation agreement with the Southern Pacific Transportation Co.

At issue was a proposal to allow Southern Pacific what some critics say was too much freedom to determine the tax writeoff value of the land the company was giving the city for a redevelopment project.

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp said in a letter to the council that he objected to the proposal because “it appears that the city will be giving the Southern Pacific appraiser a blank check.”

Charles Warren, executive officer of the State Lands Commission, also wrote the City Council about his concern over the proposed land donation.

As a result, the City Council majority agreed to modify the proposed agreement with Southern Pacific so that the company is no longer guaranteed city approval of whatever appraisal the company places on the land.

The council also changed the proposed pact so that Southern Pacific could only appraise the land for its value as restricted by a public easement.

The land, three acres of beach bluff extending from Main to 1st streets at Pacific Coast Highway, is the city’s site for a restaurant-development project called Pierside Village. The narrow strip of land has been owned in part by Chevron USA, the Huntington Beach Co. and Southern Pacific.

Chevron and the Huntington Beach Co. have deeded over to the city their claims to the land. Huntington Beach Tomorrow, a controlled-growth organization, criticized the city last January for allowing the Huntington Beach Co. to claim that the land is worth $3 million when the city had previously appraised it for only $10,000.

Officials of Huntington Beach Tomorrow and Save Our Parks similarly criticized the proposed Southern Pacific land donation offer that was made public on Wednesday because the deal would have required the city to agree to whatever value the company placed on its donation.

The previous agreement also would have allowed Southern Pacific to set the value of the land as if it did not have an encumbrance, such as an easement. The property, in fact, has had a public easement on it since 1932.

The State Lands Commission, represented by the attorney general’s office, currently is leading a legal battle to prevent the city from disposing of the land’s public easement. The case is scheduled to start Monday in Orange County Superior Court. City Atty. Gail C. Hutton said Southern Pacific must now agree to the modified land donation proposal or else the railway will remain a defendant in the case.