Council Upholds Plan for Beach Restaurant

The City Council this week upheld the Planning Commission’s decision to allow a 28-foot-high beachfront restaurant to be built next to the municipal pier.

The council voted 5 to 2 to permit the construction of a 31,000-square-foot, three-story restaurant with banquet facilities on the existing site of the Maxwell’s By the Sea restaurant.

Councilmen David Sullivan and Ralph Bauer cast the opposing votes.

Bauer vowed to continue to “oppose the project with vigor.”

Maxwell’s By the Sea and businesses on the lower level of the same building are closed.

Sullivan said that since the existing restaurant is such a visible building on the beach, he wanted the council to make the final decision on the project.

A number of residents who are members of Huntington Beach Tomorrow were opposed and voiced concerns about the new building’s height and design and the amount of public access.

Some even suggested that the building should be demolished and not rebuilt.

“If the building came down and people saw it, they’d never want anything back up there again,” resident Debbie Cook said.

Cook also said the project is subject to a Measure C vote, a law requiring that any construction on beaches and parks go before voters for approval. The measure, authored by Cook and Sullivan, was passed by voters in 1990.

Cook contended that a Measure C vote is required because the new building’s square footage is nearly double the size of the existing restaurant and requires additional parking. As a result, the project will take away beach parking to accommodate restaurant parking, Cook said.

“The bottom line is if the lease requires more beach dedicated to it, then it requires a vote,” Cook said.

However, City Atty. Gail Hutton said that because the new restaurant would sit on the same footprint as the existing building, it is not subject to a Measure C vote.