HUNTINGTON BEACH : Holly-Seacliff Plan Foes Band Together

Organizations representing as many as 1,000 homeowners surrounding Holly-Seacliff have joined forces to oppose the sprawling planned development, charging that too many homes are being proposed in certain areas.

Plans for the final 569 acres of the 780-acre project, approved this week by the Planning Commission, call for up to 3,780 homes in the north-central section of the city.

The opponents argue that if the project is approved as now planned, the large number of residents would cause unacceptable levels of traffic, overtax other public works and may eventually lead to an increase in crime.

The homeowners say they are preparing for an intensive lobbying campaign to persuade the City Council to scale back the project. The council is expected in December to consider the Holly-Seacliff development for final approval.

Gerald Chapman, who is helping organize the protests of five homeowners’ associations, notes that the Holly-Seacliff General Plan, which the council approved last year, called for an average of 3.5 housing units per acre. But under existing plans for the project, some areas would allow more than five homes per acre, which the homeowners consider unacceptable.

Before the commission’s vote, Chapman submitted a petition to the panel from homeowners opposing the project. The petition was signed by 104 residents representing five homeowners’ associations.

In addition, leaders of three other homeowners’ associations from neighborhoods abutting the development are rallying in opposition to it.

Several homeowners opposed to the current plan took their case to the commission this week, accusing city officials of acquiescing to the financial demands of Pacific Coast Homes, the major landowner and project developer. Pacific Coast Homes is a home-building subsidiary of the Huntington Beach Co., the city’s largest and most influential landowner.

“This community is fed up with the Huntington Beach Co. and its lack of concern for our community,” said Dominick Tomaino, president of the Huntington-Seacliff Homeowners’ Assn. “They want to go on developing more and more, leaving us with the burden of a poorly planned community.”

But, as Chapman and other opponents acknowledge, the homeowners’ efforts may be for naught. The development agreement between the city and the developer allows for as many as 3,780 homes, and it appears doubtful that council members will cut down that figure.