HUNTINGTON BEACH : Economist Details Benefits of Seacliff
The giant Seacliff residential and commercial project will infuse millions of dollars into the economy of Huntington Beach through property taxes on about 3,930 new homes, sales taxes and more jobs, an economist said Wednesday.
The $1-billion Seacliff project, which includes an 11-acre neighborhood shopping center and expansion of the Seacliff Village Shopping Center, will take place on 569 acres in the central coastal area of the city, mostly the site of a former oil field that has been phased out.
Grading and street work are in progress. Construction of homes is targeted to start in March and finish in three phases, ending in 2004.
Jeffrey T. Bond, an economist with Williams, Kuebelbeck & Associates who did the financial analysis for Seacliff Partners, said construction-related jobs will number from 2,790 to 5,720 per year over the construction period.
When completed, the project is expected to support permanent jobs for 3,140 people in the city.
New residents are expected to spend about about $85.7 million a year, about half of it in Huntington Beach, Bond said.
Bond said that in the 1994-96 phase of construction, the project will bring about $1.65 million in revenue to the city in property taxes, sales taxes and utility taxes while the city spends about $1.46 million to provide services to residents in the Seacliff project.
By the time of the third phase of development, the project is expected to generate about $5.7 million in revenue, while costs to the city for services are seen at $5.1 million, he said.
City Councilman Ralph Bauer said in an interview after the financial briefing that developers tend to be too optimistic about property taxes they generate, and that projections warrant careful analysis, particularly in light of the city’s shrinking share of property taxes.
Bauer said that estimates of the city’s share of sales taxes also may be exaggerated, because local residents do a substantial part of their shopping in other cities.
Seacliff Partners signed a development agreement with the city in 1990 to provide about $87 million in dedications and improvements, which include cleanup of former oil well sites, 12 acres of neighborhood parks, construction of a 9-million-gallon reservoir, funding of new paramedic services, construction of a fire station, a police station, and an elementary school, and paying for library construction.
The project is bounded generally by Ellis Avenue on the north, Seacliff Country Club Golf Course on the south, Edwards Street and Seapoint Avenue on the west and Main Street on the east.
Tom Zanic, vice president of Urban West Communities, a partner of Seacliff partners, said the financial analysis was voluntary.
“We’ve been talking about the benefits to the city, and this is an effort to quantify what the benefits and the jobs are,” he said.
