HUNTINGTON BEACH : Holly Seacliff Special District Rejected

The City Council this week declined to form a special district that would have required landowners to help pay for street improvements and other public services to accommodate the $1-billion Holly Seacliff development.

Angry property owners claimed that the district would have unfairly forced them to pay about $10 million for public improvements that would benefit Seacliff Partners and the company’s plans for nearly 4,000 homes.

“This is taxation without representation,” Connie Mandic told council members at their meeting Tuesday. “It’s not done anywhere else. It’s outrageous and highly discriminatory.”

Mandic said she and her husband would have been assessed more than $400,000 for three acres of undeveloped land in the proposed district had the district been approved.

The city’s Public Works Department, which recommended approval of the special reimbursement district, said its purpose was to provide reimbursement to Seacliff Partners for costs of improvements the company makes that would benefit other properties within the district boundaries.

Owners wouldn’t have to pay the fee until they develop their property.

Bill Holman, an official with a company that owns the land for the Holly Seacliff project, argued that other owners should be required to pay fees on a “fair-share basis.”

Total costs for public improvements, including a new police and fire station, new streets, sewers and a water system, are estimated at $60.8 million.

Councilman Victor Leipzig said the reimbursement district would have been unfair to landowners.

“It would be a real change in policy to single out these property owners,” he said.

The Holly Seacliff development takes up 460 of the 560 acres that would have been in the district. Individuals and companies own the other 100 acres.

When Seacliff Partners signed a development agreement with the city in 1990 to provide about $87 million in land dedications and improvements, city officials agreed to use their best efforts to obtain maximum reimbursable costs to Seacliff.

City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga told council members Tuesday night that he informed company officials at the time that there was a possibility that reimbursement “will not occur.”

The project is bounded generally by Ellis Avenue on the north, Huntington Seacliff Golf Course on the south, Edwards and Seapoint streets on the west and Main Street on the east.