HUNTINGTON BEACH : Developer Sues City Over Pierside Plan

The controversy over Pierside Village, a proposed beachfront development project that drew the wrath of environmentalists before it was killed by the City Council, has now led to a $4-million civil lawsuit against the city.

Stanley Bloom, a developer who sought to build Pierside Village on oceanfront land near the pier, on Tuesday filed suit in Orange County Superior Court, charging that the city breached a contract with him regarding the proposed development.

The suit said Bloom and his partners lost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in money they spent on the project.

Deputy City Atty. Robert Sangster, however, said Thursday that no contract was broken when the City Council, in essence, scuttled the Pierside Village proposal on July 15. At that time, the council voted not to lease oceanfront land at the pier to Bloom.

Pierside Village is a proposed commercial development on land facing the ocean between Main and Lake streets. Environmental groups have fought the proposed development, saying it would ruin the city’s ocean view and limit public access to the beach.

Supporters have argued that it would be an attractive addition to downtown redevelopment.

“Mr. Bloom had a contract with the city’s Redevelopment Agency for development of the Pierside project, and the city breached that contract,” said Marlena Mouser, a Los Angeles attorney representing the developer. “He is seeking at least $4 million in compensation.”

Sangster disagreed.

“The project that was finally being discussed was not the same project that the developer had first proposed,” Sangster said. He noted that Pierside Village, as proposed in 1986, called for an array of various commercial shops and restaurants. By this year, the project had been reduced to a proposed cluster of restaurants.

In his suit, Bloom says it was the city, not he, who scaled back Pierside Village.

Bloom’s suit also blames the city government for delaying action on Pierside.

“If the city . . . had timely performed its lease obligations, Measure C would never have been an issue as to the Pierside project,” the suit says. Measure C was a citizens’ initiative approved in November that requires a citywide vote on all park or beach land proposed for development. Supporters of Measure C said it specifically was aimed at preventing a project such as Pierside Village.

City officials say the project would need a citywide favorable vote before it could proceed. But the City Council in effect scrapped the project July 15, before a vote was ever taken.

Bloom’s suit says the city’s action in denying him the lease was “abusive, irrational and malicious.”