HUNTINGTON BEACH : State Coastal Panel to Vote on Pierside

Pierside Village, the city’s much-fought-over development project, will go before the state Coastal Commission at its meeting Tuesday at Marina del Rey in Los Angeles County.

Coastal Commissioner Linda Moulton-Patterson, who is also a Huntington Beach councilwoman, said she is hoping that the state agency will kill Pierside Village by revoking previously given permission for its construction.

“This is the opportunity to make sure this project doesn’t get started,” Moulton-Patterson said.

Pierside Village calls for building a cluster of new restaurants on the ocean side of Pacific Coast Highway at Main Street in Huntington Beach. The proposed development would be next to the city’s new pier.

Environmental groups have for six years protested the plans, saying the development would ruin ocean views and would also hamper public access to the city beach.

Supporters of the project say the development would complement downtown redevelopment and would not hurt the ocean views or restrict public access.

The Coastal Commission granted permission for the restaurant project in 1986. But Pierside opponents said the commission acted that year without knowing that the ocean-facing land proposed for the project has a court-ordered public easement on it dating back to the 1930s.

The existence of the easement did not become well-known until the late 1980s, when the city gained title to the site for the project.

Last July, the Coastal Commission staff recommended that the commissioners re-examine the Pierside Village project and rescind approval for new commercial buildings.

The commissioners subsequently declined on technical grounds to discuss the issue. The commission’s sidetracking of Pierside produced a storm of protest from residents.

Debbie Cook, a member of Save Our Parks, brought suit last year against the Coastal Commission, demanding that the commissioners discuss and vote on Pierside Village.

The commission, in an out-of-court settlement, agreed to put the issue back on its agenda. Thus, it is now scheduled for debate and a vote Tuesday.

Moulton-Patterson said a 1990 citizens’ initiative, Measure C, was passed by a 73% majority of city voters largely because of the Pierside Village issue.

That initiative forbids sale or lease of city-owned beaches or parks without a citywide vote.

The City Council, after favoring Pierside for years, last year rejected the project, 4 to 3.

Moulton-Patterson said that denial of the project by the Coastal Commission would be a more certain death knell for Pierside Village than the action taken by the City Council.

“If the City Council changed, this project could come up again,” she said. “But if the Coastal Commission votes it down, (developers) would have to start all over again” to get permission to build.