HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Gets No OKs on Offers for Lots

Some of the owners of seven tiny lots the city needs to acquire for a street-widening project are expected to protest at tonight’s City Council meeting.

The city now owns five of the 12 narrow lots it has targeted to widen a two-lane strip of Ellis Avenue west of Golden West Street. Officials plan to expand and improve Ellis for a nearby housing tract now under construction.

The four owners of the remaining seven lots, however, have declined to respond to the city’s offer to buy the properties for $10,000 each. So, to avoid delaying the residential project, city staff officials are asking the council to invoke its power of eminent domain to acquire the land.

At least two of the owners say that their properties are worth more than the city’s offer.

Barbara Harmon, a Burbank resident who owns one of the lots, said the county tax assessor sets the value of her land at $13,077.

Harmon said her family has owned the property since about 1915, when her grandfather was given the land as a bonus gift with his purchase of a set of encyclopedias.

“I think it’s a part of my family’s heritage . . . just like the encyclopedias, which I still have,” Harmon said. She added, however, that she would willingly sell her land for a price she considers fair.

“If the tax assessors think it’s worth $13,000, then it’s probably worth $15,000 or $20,000,” she said.

City officials contend that Harmon’s lot, as well as the adjacent properties, are worth no more than their offering bid because each is too small to build on.

The joint owners of another targeted lot, Elmer Olson and Margaret Lindsey of Huntington Beach, have written a letter to City Atty. Gail C. Hutton asking that Monday’s scheduled hearing be delayed while they work with their lawyer.