Controversial Pierside Village Plan Is Killed by State Panel : Development: The Huntington Beach City Council voted against the project last year. But action by the California Coastal Commission assures its demise.

To the loud applause of Huntington Beach residents, the California Coastal Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to kill plans for the controversial Pierside Village project.

“Pierside Village is dead!” exulted Councilwoman Grace Winchell, a longtime foe of the project, shortly after the commission’s 12-0 vote. The Huntington Beach City Council last year reversed itself and voted 4-3 to kill the project, but Winchell noted that the Coastal Commission’s action makes it virtually certain that the proposal will never be resurrected.

The Pierside Village proposal included the construction of up to five new restaurants next to the existing Maxwell’s Restaurant on the ocean side of Pacific Coast Highway at Main Street. The site adjoins the pier.

Environmental groups have for years campaigned against the project. But supporters claimed that the project would enhance downtown redevelopment.

The Coastal Commission is a state agency with zoning powers over coastal lands. The commission approved Pierside Village in 1986, but at the time the agency staff did not know about a public-access easement on the site. The easement guarantees the public’s right to use the land for recreation purposes.

Last year, the Coastal Commission staff recommended that the commissioners have another hearing on the Pierside project. The staff also strongly recommended that the commission withdraw its previous approval.

But at a tumultuous public meeting in Huntington Beach last July 17, then-Coastal Commissioner Roger Slates engineered a parliamentary move that prohibited any new debate on Pierside Village. A large Huntington Beach audience at that meeting exploded with anger; one resident threw a soft-drink can at the commissioners. Others in the audience loudly protested against not being able to testify before the commission.

Debbie Cook, a member of Save Our Parks, which has strongly opposed Pierside Village, subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Coastal Commission. The suit demanded that the commission have another hearing on the Pierside Village project. In an out-of-court settlement, the commission agreed, and on Tuesday the new hearing took place.

A new staff report presented at the Tuesday meeting again recommended that the commission rescind its 1986 approval of Pierside Village. The report urged the commission to allow nothing more than a possible redevelopment of the existing Maxwell’s Restaurant--something that Huntington Beach environmental groups do not oppose.

No one in the audience or on the commission spoke in support of Pierside Village on Tuesday. Slates, who had served as an alternate commissioner, was not at Tuesday’s meeting. Three people spoke in opposition to the project: Cook, Winchell and former Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner Geri Ortega.

After brief discussion, the Coastal Commission quickly voted to withdraw its former approval of Pierside Village and to instead allow only the redevelopment of Maxwell’s Restaurant.

Coastal Commissioner Gary Giacomini told the audience that the Pierside Village reversal came largely because of the work of new Coastal Commissioner Linda Moulton-Patterson, who is also a Huntington Beach councilwoman.

Moulton-Patterson has long been opposed to Pierside Village. Ironically, she was appointed to the Coastal Commission last July 17, a few hours after the commission made its controversial move not to hear any new information on the controversial project.

“Today is as a good day for the commission as the last time (July 17) was a bad day,” Giacomini said.

After the meeting, Cook said she was pleased at the commission’s reversal of its approval of Pierside Village. But she noted that it took her lawsuit to force the commission to hear the new arguments against the project.

“It’s a shame that citizens have to go to court in order to get a hearing from a public agency,” Cook said.

Stanley Bloom, the developer behind Pierside Village, did not testify at the hearing. He could not be reached for comment.

Bloom last Oct. 15 filed a $4-million civil damage lawsuit against Huntington Beach, accusing city government of breach of contract in its dealing with Pierside Village. The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court after the City Council had narrowly voted down the proposal.

Before 1991, the City Council majority had consistently supported the Pierside development. In the late 1980s, the council often referred to the project as the keystone of downtown redevelopment.

But environmental and citizens’ groups, including Huntington Beach Tomorrow and Save Our Parks, vehemently opposed the project. Those organizations said that building new restaurants on the beach side of Pacific Coast Highway would ruin the city’s ocean view and would limit public access to the beach.

In 1990, Save Our Parks succeeded in getting a citizens’ initiative, called Measure C, on the city ballot. Measure C, which passed with 73% of the vote, prohibited the city from selling or leasing beach or park land without a citywide vote of approval on each project.

That victory prompted the City Council to reconsider its support for Pierside Village, and the council voted 4-3 last summer to kill it.

Opponents of Pierside Village, however, noted that unless the Coastal Commission withdrew its 1986 approval of the project, it could be resurrected by a change of one vote on the City Council.