Council throws gate wide open

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- After waiting more than a year, the City Council

decided last week to open a gated parking lot where residents can watch

the sunset on the Bolsa Chica.

The gate at the corner of Garfield and Seapoint avenues will remain open

24 hours a day for at least the next six months, the council voted 6 to 1

at its May 1 meeting. Councilman Ralph Bauer dissented.

Although Mayor Dave Garofalo voted in favor of opening the gate, he said

he was concerned that young people would disturb nearby residents in the

upscale neighborhood.

“It’s obvious what’s going to happen there,” he said. “It’s going to be a

location for kids to drink and party.”

City staff will review the plan’s effects after the six-month trial

period.

The long delay in opening the property is due in part to a squabble

between the city and the county over which should take responsibility for

maintaining the property.

The county eventually plans to assume ownership of the parking lot as

part of its future 111-acre Harriett M. Wieder Park, commonly referred to

as Linear Park. But no agreement has been reached as to when the transfer

will take place, Councilman Tom Harman said.

“This is a classic illustration of one bureaucracy, the city, not being

able to get along with another bureaucracy, the county,” he said.

The parking lot has another entrance by Edwards Street and Overlook Road.

But that gate will remain locked out of concern that too many drivers

would use the lot as a shortcut.

Only Bauer was opposed to opening just the one gate -- he wanted both

gates open. Bauer said the property should be available to the public

without any restrictions and was especially upset by the disparaging

remarks made against teenagers who may park there.

“To assume that our young people are going to go out and abuse the

privilege of the overlook at the Bolsa Chica is unfair to the young

people of this community, quite frankly,” Bauer said.