Holly-Seacliff OKd by Council Over Protests

Despite pleas from residents to delay action, the City Council on Monday night voted 6 to 1 to approve a controversial development agreement for Holly-Seacliff, the biggest development project in the city’s 86-year history.

The agreement with Pacific Coast Homes, a sister firm of the Huntington Beach Co., came after rancorous debate and testimony from several citizens who accused the City Council of needlessly rushing the big project and bowing to the political dictates of the powerful Huntington Beach Co.

“One thing I’ve learned in my 25 years in Huntington Beach is that I don’t trust the Huntington Beach Co.,” said resident Dave Sullivan, in urging the council to scuttle the proposed agreement.

But the council majority, including Councilman Peter M. Green, who usually sides with slow-growth elements, said they were convinced that the agreement overall would be good for the city.

The sole opposing vote came from Councilwoman Grace Winchell, an environmental activist who said the city could get the same benefits that are in the development agreement simply by proceeding on a project-by-project basis.

Winchell said she opposed the agreement because “it locks future councils in as to what may be needed for citizens of this city.”

The $1-billion, 15-year pact with Pacific Coast Homes calls for transforming 545 acres once dotted by dozens of oil wells in northwest Huntington Beach into an upscale area of 3,780 residential units, four new parks and landscaped pockets of commercial and light-industrial areas.

City planners say at least 10,000 new residents will move into the city as Holly-Seacliff evolves over the next 20 years.

The council’s approval of the long-range pact came despite fears expressed by some residents of the city tightening its bond with the controversial and influential Huntington Beach Co.

The company and the city have had a symbiotic relationship since 1904, when the company took over the village of Pacific City, changed its name to Huntington Beach and began marketing residential lots.

Both the Huntington Beach Co. and Pacific Coast Homes are now wholly owned by Chevron, and together the three entities are the largest land owners in the city. All three companies are heavily involved in the city’s political campaigns.

“I worry about this agreement being fulfilled because sometimes the Huntington Beach Co. acts as if it’s above the law,” Planning Commission Chairwoman Geri Ortega said last week.

But the council majority said Monday night that Huntington Beach will gain substantial benefits from the development pact and that many safeguards are built into the agreement.

“I think it’s good planning for the city and good planning for the future,” said Mayor Thomas J. Mays.

The agreement will allow the company to build 1,200 single-family homes and 2,580 town houses and condominiums. The residences will range from townhouses expected to sell for about $250,000 to single-family estates with ocean views that will sell for $1 million or more.

Bill Holman, project manager for the Huntington Beach Co., said the city has much to gain from the development.

“The company is taking a financial risk in this because we have pledged to build all the infrastructure--the roads and improvements--before we do anything else,” Holman said in an interview before Monday night’s City Council meeting.

Holman said the city, represented by new Huntington Beach Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga, proved to be a tough negotiator . . . “very tenacious.”

Uberuaga has said he is a hard-liner on development agreements because they generally prove to be more beneficial to developers than to city government. He told the council last week that he would not give his blessing to the Holly-Seacliff pact unless it contained “many things the city otherwise would not be able to obtain.” He withheld his approval last week because the development company balked at agreeing to pay new fees on Holly-Seacliff--fees that future city councils may enact during the next 15 years.

Pacific Coast Homes ultimately yielded to Uberuaga’s insistence on accepting new fees.

Following that concession, Uberuaga said he could now recommend approval of the pact because it contained several major items beneficial to the city. The agreement, he noted, also requires the developer to make the following:

Give 41 acres of land to the county’s new Bolsa Chica Linear Regional Park.

Donate an additional 12 acres of land for neighborhood parks in Holly-Seacliff.

Build a new police substation and a new fire station, both in the Holly-Seacliff area.

Construct a new water reservoir in the area.

Widen and improve existing roads in the area and build several new ones.

Pay double the city’s existing traffic-impact fees.