PCH ‘Eyesore’ Will Get a Look as Council Reviews General Plan

The stretch of Huntington Beach along Pacific Coast Highway between Beach Boulevard and the Santa Ana River, resident Jon D. Ely says, is the city’s “most prominent eyesore.”

Specifically, Ely points to the Southern California Edison power plant and nearby sewage treatment plant.

“To a visitor, tourist or prospective home buyer, the twisted, myriad exposed steel and billowing smoke gives a foul impression of our community,” Ely told the City Council this week.

As the council considers amendments to the general plan, Ely proposed that officials address the area’s “visual blight” and take steps to discourage industrial development that might further clutter the area.

His suggestions drew support from council members and the city’s planning staff, though they conceded that the power plant, with steam generating units 90 feet tall and 230-foot smokestacks, would be impossible to hide.

“It would be difficult to make it look like anything other than a generating station,” Jerry Dominguez, Edison’s region manager.

Measures might be taken, however to soften the effect, Dominguez said. A landscape buffer and decorative fencing, for instance, would partially screen the area from travelers.

Dominguez added, however, “I don’t think it’s appropriate that the city or residents should be able to mandate the usage of the property within the zoning rights that we have.”

Senior Planner Herb Fauland said his staff will review Ely’s comments and make a recommendation to the council at an April meeting. The updated general plan, he said, is expected to be adopted in May.