HUNTINGTON BEACH : Lives Still on Hold at Driftwood Beach

Jackie Duke and her husband have long wanted to remodel their relic of a mobile home.

Their modified trailer is too small for their growing family, and its age is showing considerably, she says.

“There are quite a few things we’d like to do,” she said. “We need new furniture, the plumbing needs fixing and the carpet’s shot. But until we absolutely know where we’re going to end up living, we have to just keep shampooing (the carpet) every few months.”

The Dukes, like the owners of the other 200 residences at the seaside Driftwood Beach Club Mobile Home Park, have had to keep their lives on hold for four years--and counting--while the city Redevelopment Agency tries to find them new homes.

Driftwood, home to many of the residents for more than two decades, is located on some of the most choice property in the city, and is scheduled to be cleared away as part of a sprawling, $350-million waterfront redevelopment project.

The park on Pacific Coast Highway between Huntington Street and Beach Boulevard makes up most of the 45-acre area the city acquired for the project, which began this year with the opening of its 13-story Hilton hotel.

The city and the Waterfront developer, the Robert Mayer Corp., last week unveiled plans for the next two phases of the project: a 20-story hotel tower, a health and tennis center and 639 town homes and condominiums to be built on the Driftwood site.

Representatives from the city and Mayer Corp. say they expect to break ground for those developments within nine months.

“We’re very confident we’ll get under way by next summer, as planned,” said Steven K. Bone, the development firm’s executive director.

But the city’s original mobile-home relocation plans have collapsed, and it has yet to find a new home for the Driftwood residents. And as long as their relocation remains at a standstill, so will the further development of the waterfront project.

Despite optimistic statements from city officials and Mayer executives, the attorney representing the mobile-home residents in the relocation effort has grown increasingly pessimistic during the past month.

Recent relocation talks “have resulted in no apparent progress,” attorney Thomas Wells wrote in a Dec. 13 newsletter to his clients.

Wells notified City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga in a letter this month that unless an agreement is reached by Jan. 24, “then it appears that despite the efforts that have been expended, these negotiations have failed.”

The residents thought a breakthrough came in September, 1988, when the city reached an agreement with the Driftwood Beach Club Mobile Home Owners Assn.

That pact stated that the city would replace shoddy mobile homes and build a new park for the residents at the site of a former mushroom farm on Golden West Street at Ellis Avenue. The Ocean View Estates park was to include a golf course, replacing the nine-hole, chip-and-putt area on the Driftwood site.

But last April, 11 months after the first 25 mobile homes were moved to Ocean View, a city environmental consultant uncovered high levels of methane gas near the area planned for the extension of the relocation park. The cost to fix the problem to meet state standards is estimated at $8 million, more than the city is willing to pay.

City officials have been searching for an alternate site ever since.

Wells and city officials have discussed two leading options to solve the dilemma. The city would either buy out the remaining Driftwood residents or relocate them to an 18-acre site at the abandoned Meadowlark Airport property on Warner Avenue near Bolsa Chica Street.

Seven other sites have also been considered, said Barbara Kaiser, a deputy director for the city.

Wells said in his letter to Uberuaga that the homeowners association would accept either a relocation to the Meadowlark site or a $28-million buyout package. Thus far, however, city officials have said they cannot afford either option, his letter said.

But Wells said he hasn’t “given up hope. I’m still somewhat optimistic, although a lot of my membership is fed up. They’re extremely distressed in that they don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, and they are all very anxious to get on with their lives.”

Fifteen-year Driftwood resident Carol Montoya said she recognizes that the pressure of progress forcing the residents out is probably inevitable. “But if they’re going to do something, I wish they’d do it,” she said. “But as it is, I’m in limbo. This isn’t a pleasant place to live any more.”