Residents question whether H.B. senior center site can be developed for homes

Possible residential development on the Rodgers Seniors’ Center property has some Huntington Beach residents worried that the city may be going back on what they believe is a decade-old promise that the site would be used for open space or recreation.

Now that construction on a new senior center in Central Park is well underway, the city’s plans for the current center’s 2-acre site at Orange Avenue and 17th Street are stirring up concern.

The city has begun talks with developer Christopher Homes, which can propose to build 22 single-family homes and up to a 0.4-acre park on the city-owned lot. However, residents argued during a City Council meeting Monday that the city said in 2006 that it would keep the site for open space and recreational use.

Residents referred to arguments in the voters booklet for the 2006 election regarding Measure T, which asked Huntington Beach voters if they wanted a senior center in Central Park.

The rebuttal to the argument against the measure read in part: “An added benefit is returning the existing senior center to all downtown residents’ use.”

The rebuttal was endorsed by then-Mayor Dave Sullivan and four former council members.

“The residents of Huntington Beach were promised in the voter material that the current site be returned to an open space park,” resident Stephanie Green said.

Residents also told council members that its deed with Chevron Corp., which in 1917 granted the city the deed to the property, provided that the city use it for a park or another recreational purpose.

However, City Atty. Michael Gates said in April that the condition no longer applies because the city owns the property. Gates said Tuesday that under the state’s Marketable Record Title Act, Chevron needed to renew its interest in the property every 30 years but had not done so since granting the property to the city almost a century ago.

Gates said the land defaulted to the city’s ownership in 1988, when the state law went into effect.

City Clerk Joan Flynn said after Monday’s meeting that the 2006 ballot arguments were not requirements but rather opinions.

She said she did not believe that the statement in question was misleading because residents and officials at the time were under the impression that the deed with Chevron was still active.

If Huntington Beach officials decide to sell the property to Christopher Homes or another developer, it would trigger a public vote under Measure C, which residents approved in 1990 to require voter approval whenever the city plans to lease or sell open space or a recreational area for residential or commercial development.