Redevelopment Moves In to Open Arms

Fifteen years ago, plans to perform major surgery on the heart of Surf City drew so much opposition that then-Mayor Harriett M. Wieder needed police protection because of her outspoken support for downtown redevelopment.

“That was back in 1976, and I had to have a policeman ride with me in the Fourth of July Parade that year,” recalled Wieder, who is now an Orange County supervisor. “People really were up in arms about redevelopment then.”

Time, however, has eroded such massive opposition--largely because most residents in Huntington Beach now believe time has also eroded their old downtown, according to a recent Times Orange County Poll by Mark Baldassare & Associates. Six hundred Huntington Beach residents were interviewed for the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.

Residents seem ready to trade downtown’s funky surf stores and aging counterculture shops for neon signs and modern-mall glitz. The poll found that 63% of residents approve of plans for downtown redevelopment. The majority say they see a better, cleaner, safer downtown emerging, and they like it.

Baldassare said such lopsided public support for downtown redevelopment is unusual in any city.

“Redevelopment is almost always a controversial issue for a city because it involves changes and major expenditures,” said Baldassare. “We found that people in Huntington Beach have a negative impression of the downtown area and think it needs a face lift.”

While most residents supported downtown redevelopment on the land side of Coast Highway, they are divided about proposed changes on the beach side. The proposed Pierside Village development includes a new plaza and two new commercial restaurants on oceanfront land now used for parking, near the city’s pier. The poll found that 47% of residents oppose that proposed project, while 46% support it and the remainder were undecided.

“Residents rate the beaches as the most satisfying feature of their city and use them on a frequent basis,” Baldassare said, “so people are cautious about any changes having to do with the beaches.”

Urban renewal has often been controversial in Orange County, where 22 of the county’s 29 cities are undergoing or planning redevelopment.

William Hodge, executive director of the Orange County division of the League of California Cities, said that redevelopment is change, and “any kind of change makes people feel uncomfortable.” But he said that redevelopment--which raises the taxable value of the property--has been a great help to many cities, especially in the wake of Proposition 13, which limited the property tax revenues that cities receive.

Huntington Beach first launched redevelopment in 1982, and there are now five areas of the city involved in renewal programs. According to Deputy City Administrator Barbara Kaiser, the city has spent $121 million so far on redevelopment, $91 million of which has gone to the downtown area. “Most of that (expenditure) has been in buying property,” she said.

The poll found that fear of crime in the downtown area is a prime reason for supporting redevelopment. Asked what they liked best about revamping the downtown, the largest number--30%--said they hoped it will reduce crime in the area.

City Councilman Earle Robitaille, a former Huntington Beach police chief, said residents’ concern about downtown crime is well justified. “Downtown has been notorious for major fights, riots, rapes, drunks, motorcycle gangs, drugs, prostitution, you name it,” said Robitaille. “It had turned into a run-down, dilapidated area.”

Shelley Young, 31, one resident who took part in the poll, had similar criticisms of the old downtown area. “Downtown had become pretty seedy,” Young said. “I felt unsafe going down there, and I love to go down by the pier because I love the pier. So I’m very glad to see new construction in the downtown.”

The first phase of Huntington Beach’s downtown redevelopment is now completed, and it includes new condos such as Huntington Bayshore and Town Square. The first phase also ushered in the new Waterfront Hilton Hotel on Pacific Coast Highway and the Pierside Pavilion building at the highway’s junction with Main Street.

The Mediterranean-style Pierside Pavilion houses a number of stores and restaurants, including the reincarnation of the old Golden Bear nightclub, torn down in 1986 to make way for the new. Some have never forgiven the city: Recent graffiti on a street curb in front of Pierside Pavilion asked, “The Golden Bear lost for this?”

But the poll found that no such nostalgia sweeps the majority of the city. Only 12% named the destruction of old buildings as a negative aspect of redevelopment.

“I think a some of the old buildings were places where most residents in Huntington Beach wouldn’t go,” said Helen Christmon, one of the people who took part in the poll. “I think the new stores offer a different type of retail.”

The Times Orange County Poll showed favorable views of downtown redevelopment from people all over the city. That show of support came despite heavy criticism of redevelopment in recent years by some preservationists and property owners.

One such critic, Doug Langevin, a downtown property owner, has said he thinks redevelopment is being badly handled by the City Council. “They’re pushing ahead with a piecemeal operation,” he charged. “They really don’t have a clue as to how to go about it. They have no overall plan that is worth a hoot. All the city is interested in is the tax increment” that raises tax revenue to pay for the projects.

But city officials said that most old buildings in the downtown, including the Golden Bear, were not earthquake-safe and could not be rehabilitated.

County Supervisor Wieder said she thinks many Huntington Beach residents similarly became convinced that the old buildings downtown were beyond saving. “In the 15 years since I was mayor here, I think people have recognized the lack of safety in the existing buildings downtown,” she said.

Some residents, including Barbara Milcovich, archivist for the Huntington Beach Historical Society, deplore the city’s moves to tear down more old buildings. “You read a city by its commercial buildings,” said Milcovich. “Soon all the old buildings, the ones that tell the city’s history, will be gone.”

City officials respond by saying that some old buildings will remain and will be rehabilitated. How Huntington Beach Residents Feel About Their City The City’s Past and Future Compared to five years ago, do you think Huntington Beach today is a better place to live or a worse place to live, or is it about the same? And five years from now do you think HuntingtonBeach will be a better place to live or a worse place to live, or about the same as it is today? Five Years Ago Better place: 22% Don’t know: 11% Same: 46% Worse place: 21% Five Years Hence Better place: 31% Don’t know: 4% Same: 41% Worse place: 24% City Power-Brokers In your opinion, how much influence does each of the following have on Huntington Beachpolitics?

Don’t A lot Some Little None know Local developers 66% 22% 5% 2% 5% Oil companies 54 26 7 3 10 Local banks 38 38 11 3 10 and businesses Local 20 49 21 3 7 environmental groups Average residents 14 42 32 7 5

Source: The Times Orange County Poll Downtown Redevelopment Boundary of downtown redevelopment in Huntington Beach