HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Promises to Air Pierside Rebuttal

The leader of an environmental activist group who had accused the city of using its cable-television station to lobby for the controversial Pierside Village project will be given equal air time to oppose the project, a city spokesman said Wednesday.

The announcement quieted a furor ignited during the past week when Bob Biddle, president of Huntington Beach Tomorrow, assailed the city for broadcasting a program on Channel 3 featuring Pierside Village developer Jonathan Chodos.

Biddle charged that the government-access channel, which the city shares with Fountain Valley and Westminster, was being used by Huntington Beach as “an instrument for developers.”

But after meeting with city Public Information Director William Reed to discuss the matter, Biddle on Wednesday backed away from his criticism, which had included a threat to ask for a Federal Communications Commission investigation.

“Overall, I’m satisfied with what came out of our meeting,” Biddle said. “Mr. Reed said this (controversy) is good for him and the station, to offer more viewpoints. He stressed that the station’s programs will not be one-sided.”

Reed, who directs Huntington Beach programs on Channel 3, said he plans to tape a 30-minute program with Biddle on Aug. 16 to discuss the Pierside Village proposal. The program will be shown later.

Pierside Village is a proposed complex of restaurants to be built on bluffs next to the municipal pier at Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway. The land is now paved for street-level beach parking.

Critics say the project would block ocean views and ruin the beach’s natural atmosphere, while supporters say it would attract more visitors and that the project’s plazas and promenades would give more people a chance to see the ocean.

In addition to Biddle’s scheduled cable-TV appearance, representatives from Save Our Parks, a park and beach preservation group that shares a political action committee with Huntington Beach Tomorrow and likewise opposes Pierside Village, will appear on a show to be taped Aug. 23, Reed said.

Reed said he has tried to plan Channel 3 programs based upon a 1986 City Council policy, which says, in part: “The channel is not intended to be used as an exclusive political forum by an individual or group, nor as a mechanism for building exclusive support for a particular person, program or issue.”

“We welcome what (Biddle) has asked for,” Reed said. “When people are unhappy with the content of a program we air, they’re just the people I want to talk to” on a future program.

Deputy City Administrator Richard Barnard said Wednesday that city officials will examine the existing cable-TV policy, and may propose some changes.