HUNTINGTON BEACH : Move of Facility Into Seacliff OKd

Despite pleas from residents of the Seacliff development, the City Council has voted to allow a maintenance facility to be moved into that upscale area.

Although the council placed some conditions on the proposed move, many residents said they were unhappy.

At issue was a proposal to relocate the Seacliff Country Club maintenance facility to a site closer to existing Seacliff homes. Residents claimed that the move would increase noise and traffic and therefore lower their property values.

The action was sought by Pacific Coast Homes, a subsidiary of the Huntington Beach Co..

Dale Bush, a Seacliff resident and former Huntington Beach city attorney, said the company wants “to move this maintenance facility from a site where it has been for 20 years for no good reason except the one they haven’t told you about yet--and that is, they want to build houses on the old site.”

The city staff, in a report, acknowledged that Pacific Coast Homes/Huntington Beach Co. eventually hopes to build homes on the site.

Roger Work, vice president and general manager of the Huntington Beach Co., told the council that the relocation of the maintenance facility has been well-planned. He said the new site would not detract from existing homes in Seacliff.

“We plan to landscape it so that basically it will be invisible,” Work said. His comments were booed and hooted by some of the overflow crowd that packed the council chambers Monday night.

Councilwoman Grace Winchell said she opposed the move because it would be “moving something of what is a nuisance” into an established residential neighborhood. She urged the council to disapprove the action, but her motion lost 4 to 3.

On a subsequent motion, the council voted to restrict the hours of the maintenance facility and to prohibit its equipment on a residential road. That motion passed 5 to 2.