HUNTINGTON BEACH : Land Issue Will Be on Ballot, Group Says

A measure to protect public parks and beaches in the city is headed for the November ballot, a conservation group announced Monday.

Save Our Parks, which has been soliciting voter signatures for a proposed city charter amendment, turned in 18,661 signatures to the city clerk Monday. The proposal needed at least 15,302 signatures to make the ballot, City Clerk Connie Brockway said.

Debbie Cook, spokeswoman for Save Our Parks, said the six-month effort to solicit voter signatures was successful because Huntington Beach residents are worried about City Council proposals to sell or lease beach and park land.

“People in the city are really mad about things like Pierside Village,” said Cook, referring to a proposed development of restaurants on the ocean side of Pacific Coast Highway near the pier.

Save Our Parks has adamantly opposed the project, saying more restaurants will ruin the view and block public access to the beach.

The Save Our Parks effort proposes an amendment to the city charter that would forbid the city from selling or leasing park or beach land unless approved by both a majority of the seven-member City Council and a majority of city voters.

Current law allows the city to sell or lease land by a majority vote of the council; no voter referendum is required.

Brockway said the county registrar of voters office will review the signatures. If at least 15,302 are valid, she said, the measure automatically goes on the November ballot.

“This is only the second initiative in the history of our city, and the first one for a charter amendment,” Brockway said. The first initiative to qualify in the city was in 1988 when voters petitioned to place a slow-growth measure on the ballot that year. That proposal was narrowly defeated in the election.

“Getting this charter amendment to the ballot is only half the battle,” Cook said. “Now we must get the support of voters so it will be passed in November.”