Surf City Douses Fireworks Plan

What was shaping up to be the largest Fourth of July fireworks show on the West Coast -- complete with an offshore barge to launch a pyrotechnic extravaganza -- has been officially extinguished in Huntington Beach, a city trying to shed its party-town image.

“I’ve weighed the risks and benefits, and the risks outweigh the benefits,” said Mayor Connie Boardman, who provided the pivotal vote in last week’s 4-3 council action that killed the show idea.

Wary council members -- siding with resort operators who said the city has too much at stake -- said that the additional 20,000 to 40,000 spectators would have created traffic and safety problems, including concerns about illegal fireworks and alcohol consumption.

The decision disappointed residents, including volunteers who sponsor the city’s annual Independence Day parade and subsequent fireworks show at a local high school. They wanted the city to join other coastal cities, such as San Clemente and Redondo Beach, that hold fireworks shows at the beach.

In recent years, Surf City, as Huntington Beach is known, has invested tens of millions of dollars in downtown redevelopment to encourage tourism.

With the recent opening of the 517-room Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa and with other developments and hotel projects proposed, the city is seeking to move away from its rough oil town beginnings and market its nine miles of sandy beaches and world-class surfing competitions as a resort area.

“This city has invested too much to risk it on an event where something can go wrong,” said Councilman Dave Sullivan, referring to previous violent outbreaks on holidays. “We had one day’s incident in the past that really gave the city a black eye and it took many years until we changed that. I don’t want to take the chance of going back to where we were.”

At the meeting, Sullivan read a letter from Steve Bone, president of the company that owns the Hyatt and the nearby Waterfront Hilton. In it, Bone urged the city to cancel the barge show, citing the potentially negative effect on the tourism industry should trouble occur.

The city used to hold its Fourth of July celebration at the beach. Because of a series of disturbances in the downtown area, it was moved to Huntington Beach High School’s stadium. The most recent violence was eight years ago, when more than 500 people were arrested after holiday revelers ran amok.

But the school’s field is off-limits this year because of repair work scheduled for the summer. The unavailability of the stadium added impetus in recent years to return the show to the strand, based partly on the sense that the riots were a thing of the past.

Councilwoman Debbie Cook, who voted to hold the celebration this year, was among those who argued that the city has “gone beyond its old problems.”

Having a trouble-free celebration would have been a community success, Cook said, an opportunity to finally, in a public way, put the city’s past to rest.

The majority of the City Council, however, thought otherwise. Instead, the city will begin plans for a fireworks show for next year’s centennial celebration.

The July 4th Board, a private group of business owners and residents that sponsors the city’s parade and fireworks show, was disappointed by the vote. The group wanted the city to pay for a portion of the fireworks show, which the board would repay once donations had been raised, or at least have the council wait until May before canceling the event. That would have given the group a chance to raise some, if not all, of the estimated $110,000 for the show.

“The city and the Fourth of July board have been trying to get over what happened years and years ago,” said Connie Young, a spokeswoman for the board.

“Let me tell you that when the riots happened at the surfing contest, my daughter was in high school,” she said. “She’s now in medical school; that’s how long ago that was.”

Young said use of an offshore barge would have allowed Huntington Beach residents to view the display throughout the city.

“This was going to be big, allowing the show to be viewed by city residents at Central Park or even standing in their frontyards. They didn’t even have to go down to the beach to watch it,” she said.

“People are going to be very disappointed when they learn there will be no fireworks show this year.

“It would have been a perfect dry run for next year’s centennial,” she said.