Huntington Beach City Council to consider mural at new AES power plant

The Huntington Beach City Council on Monday night will consider approving a mural used for a design element at AES’ new and modernized power plant.

The Huntington Beach Energy Project, which went online in February and is located near Newland Street and Pacific Coast Highway, replaces the old plant which used sea water to cool the plant. The new power plant uses air and is more efficient and environmentally friendly.

Originally, AES planned to use a screen wall as an architectural design element at the new 644-megawatt power plant. Now, however, the company is ditching the 150-foot-tall “ball wall” due to concerns related to timing, scale and potential noise impacts, according to a city staff report prepared by Director of Community Development Ursula Luna-Reynosa.

AES now plans to use a mural by Los Angeles-based artist Kim West as a designed element and is asking for the City Council’s approval. The city’s Design Review Board supported the mural as a mitigation measure in a meeting on Oct. 8.

In consideration of the city’s approval, AES is paying $4.9 million to the city for various capital improvement projects and programs. According to the report, those include a neighborhood mitigation project, homeless response program, southeast Huntington Beach neighborhood improvements, a downtown connectivity project and economic development.

City Manager Oliver Chi said an initial meeting with the Southeast Area Committee took place this week to discuss funding options, and more survey work is planned to discuss funding priorities.

Monday’s Huntington Beach City Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. and can be watched on channel HBTV-3 or online at huntingtonbeach.legistar.com. Residents may send comments on agenda items to supplementalcomm@surfcity-hb.org.

Communications received by 2 p.m. Monday will be distributed to the council prior to consideration of agenda-related items.

The council chambers will not be open for in-person attendance to provide public comment due to COVID-19, but residents are encouraged to submit comments via Zoom.

The Webinar ID is 971 5413 0528 and can be reached via the Zoom app or by calling (669) 900-6833 and entering the ID. Individuals will be placed in a holding queue and prompted to speak when the city clerk announces their name or the last three digits of their phone number.

Time for remarks is limited to three minutes.

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