HUNTINGTON BEACH : Golf Course Plans May Succumb to Gas

The city’s plans to relocate 145 mobile homes and build an 18-hole golf course in Central Park probably will be scuttled because of a consultant’s finding that part of the land is riddled with pockets of methane gas, city officials said Wednesday.

According to an engineering study of the property between Golden West and Gothard streets north of Ellis Avenue, the presence of the methane gas beneath a former county dump site means that portion of the property is not stable enough for development.

The city would have to spend $8 million to $10 million to capture the methane and shore up sinking areas of the land before building a mobile home park or a golf course, the study said. City officials interviewed Wednesday said they were not willing to spend that much money on the project.

City officials had originally projected the soil problems could be remedied for $500,000.

The report follows a controversy about whether to develop the golf course in the public park, an issue that sharply divided City Council members and prompted residents to form an organization opposing the project.

But the study also creates some new problems for the city, which is required under a redevelopment agreement to relocate Driftwood Mobile Home Park and build a nine- or 18-hole golf course next to the park.

The section of the property where the residents were to be moved is an old mushroom farm site that is not contaminated by methane. However, according to state law, new residences may not be located within 600 feet of methane-generating land, which makes the farmland unsuitable, officials said.

The city is obligated to move the mobile home park from its Pacific Coast Highway site to make way for the $345-million Waterfront project, a hotel, restaurant and shopping complex currently under construction.

The golf course clause was a key provision for many of the residents who agreed to be relocated.

City officials will now begin studying other options for moving the trailer park, including relocating an equestrian center or clearing another park site.

“Or we may just buy out all the mobile homes,” Mayor Thomas J. Mays said. “That may be the most economical way to go.”

Councilman John Erskine said he believes the city may have to consider some “creative financing,” such as a bond measure, to resolve the problem.

Debbie Cook, chairwoman of Save Our Parks, the group formed last year to oppose the golf course, said Wednesday her organization would fight attempts by the city to encroach upon another section of Central Park or float a bond for the project.