HUNTINGTON BEACH : Plan Panel Cancels Special Meeting

A special meeting of the Planning Commission scheduled for Monday was canceled after the city’s major landowner, the Huntington Beach Co., missed a deadline for producing a proposed development agreement.

The meeting had been called so that the Planning Commission could consider a development agreement for the 768-acre housing and commercial project called Holly-Seacliff. The Huntington Beach Co. owns about 90% of the land scheduled for development in that area.

Planning Commissioner Victor Leipzig said Monday that the panel had given the Huntington Beach Co. a deadline of 5 p.m. Friday to submit a development agreement. “They couldn’t make that deadline, and so the special meeting has been canceled,” Leipzig said. The commission had fixed the deadline so commissioners would have time to study a proposal before a special meeting, he said.

Some critics of the Huntington Beach Co. have said that the land company is attempting to push through a long-range development agreement before new City Council members are elected Nov. 6. Three incumbent councilmen, all of whom have supported the Huntington Beach Co. in the past, are not seeking reelection this year. Some candidates backed by environmental groups are running this fall on platforms that call for more controls on city growth.

The Holly-Seacliff project is now scheduled to come before the Planning Commission’s regular meeting next Tuesday. City staffers said that if the Planning Commission votes on Holly-Seacliff then, the issue could be placed before the City Council at its Oct. 15 meeting.