HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Land Initiative Fails to Make Ballot

A major environmental initiative aimed for the Nov. 6 citywide ballot has failed to qualify by only 550 voter signatures, the county registrar of voters office said on Tuesday.

The initiative, circulated by Save Our Parks, was designed to halt controversial proposals to sell or lease parkland and public beaches in the city. The measure, if it had made it to the ballot and been supported by a majority vote on Nov. 6, would have forbidden park and beach land sales and leases unless each instance was approved by a citywide vote. Current city law allows sale of parkland by a majority vote of the seven-member City Council, and no vote of city residents is required.

“I’m disappointed, but we’re going to keep fighting, especially against Pierside Village,” said Debbie Cook, spokeswoman for Save Our Parks. “We may have lost this battle, but we’re not going to lose the war.”

Pierside Village is a controversial proposal of the City Council to lease beach-bluff land on the ocean side of Pacific Coast Highway near the municipal pier. The leased land would be used to build more commercial restaurants.

To qualify for the citywide ballot, the initiative needed 15,302 signatures of registered voters in the city. Save Our Parks on June 4 turned in petitions with 18,661 signatures.

Cook said the registrar of voters office, which checked the voter signatures for accuracy, found about 2,500 in error because the people had moved from one place within the city to another location and had failed to re-register to vote as required by law. Cook said another 1,300 voter signatures were duplicates--people who signed more than one petition.

Save Our Parks, a volunteer citizens organization, worked about eight months trying to get enough signatures to qualify the initiative. The group formed last September after many residents became angry at a City Council proposal to lease an undeveloped part of Central Park and make it a commercial golf course.

“Since we’ve formed, the golf course idea seems to have died of its own weight, but they’re still talking about Pierside Village, and we’ll fight that in the courts,” Cook said.