HUNTINGTON BEACH : Eminent Domain Proposal Rejected

Although some of the long-delayed projects in the downtown redevelopment area have begun moving forward recently, the City Council has delayed plans for a key 3-acre block across from the beach.

A council majority this week blocked a proposal to use the power of eminent domain to buy a narrow strip of land that is keeping a developer from building a complex of condominiums and shops on half that area. Officials now say it will be years before a redevelopment project can proceed on that land.

At issue is the block on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway between 1st and 2nd streets; the block is now occupied by fast-food restaurants and abandoned oil fields. Because it is situated between the year-old Pierside Pavilion at Main Street and the continuing Waterfront development at Huntington Street, the area is considered an important component for the downtown redevelopment.

But most council members said, however, that they do not believe the block is as vital to those plans as the developments in the Main Street-Municipal Pier area. A majority rejected a proposal to develop a section of the block, despite the fact that a “window of opportunity” just opened for city redevelopment plans, according to Barbara A. Kaiser, deputy city administrator for economic development.

California Resorts International, which built Pierside Pavilion, has been buying land in the adjacent block along Pacific Coast Highway with hopes of building the proposed retail-residential complex. The developer intends to buy a large chunk of the land needed for the project--an 11,750-square-foot lot on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and 1st Street that has just been put up for sale. The lease on the property, which now houses a Jack in the Box restaurant, expires later this month.

Acquiring that property would mean that California Resorts and the city together would own all of the 1.5 acres except for the 5,500-square-foot strip needed for the developer’s project. The owner of that parcel, Downey resident Allen L. Nelson, has resisted attempts by the city and the developer to buy his property.

Councilmen Jack Kelly, Don MacAllister and Jim Silva backed a request by the developer that the council use its power of eminent domain to acquire Nelson’s property. Kelly, in arguing that the council should assist California Resorts, said, “I know everyone thinks that (large developers) wear black hats around here, but without these people, we wouldn’t have a job.”

But the council majority sided with Councilwoman Grace Winchell, who argued: “I see no public compulsion toward getting into this now. . . . When you’re talking about taking someone’s private property, you’d better have an awfully good reason for it.”

In addition, officials said, developing the entire block would cost the city redevelopment agency at least $9.4 million.

Among other changes, the agency would need to realign Walnut Avenue--which now cuts through the block--remove old oil-production equipment scattered throughout the area and buy properties from nine other owners.

With other redevelopment projects throughout the area now under way, the agency has incurred a debt estimated at $113.7 million, Kaiser said this week.

It will probably be several years before the agency can afford to rebuild the block, said Stephen Kohler, the city’s principal redevelopment specialist. By then, he said, the agency may have enough money to redevelop the entire block, “which may be a more appropriate approach.”