Huntington Beach takes step to spruce up southeast side

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The city is moving forward with efforts to upgrade

a vast chunk of land near the beach to make it more appealing and

environmentally sound.

The City Council set aside $172,000 this month for consulting firm

Rosenow, Spevacek Group Inc. to prepare a plan that could make it

possible to designate the 266 acres between Beach Boulevard and Magnolia

Street, just east of the Pacific Coast Highway, a redevelopment area.

“I think the main purpose of this is to beautify and upgrade, as well

as help with some of the problem areas on the land,” said Councilman

David Sullivan, adding that he has often been against the idea of

redevelopment in the city. “But I think in this case, it qualifies.”

In October, the consulting firm performed a feasibility study on

whether the land met state standards for redevelopment, with positive

results, city officials said.

“That piece of land, historically, has been used as a sort of dumping

ground for undesirable industrial businesses, which makes it difficult to

recycle,” said David Biggs, the city’s economic director.

The land is home to an electric power plant, a landfill and a refinery

tank farm for oil businesses, he added. There are about 60 acres of

undeveloped wetlands also within the lot that officials are concerned

about, as well as a boat sales yard and trailer park alongside the

highway.

City officials said they have several goals for the area, including

restoring the wetlands, lightening any effects on surrounding

neighborhoods, and cleaning and developing the landfill property.

“To put it mildly, it’s been a frustrating situation,” Sullivan said.

“I know that those oil tanks are not in use, and there has been some

trouble getting the funds to clean up the ground contamination from the

landfill.”

According to the preliminary study, about 159 acres, or 53% of the

land, is known to contain -- or suspected of containing -- hazardous

contamination, due largely to the landfill, the oil refinery tank farm,

the power plant and a boat business.

By naming the area a redevelopment project, the city will be eligible

for a larger amount of the property taxes garnered from the land, about

20% of the total tax money, which can then be used to pay for

environmental cleanup, landscaping and other beautification efforts, and

residential development.

City officials said the consulting firm should complete its

preparations for the redevelopment process in about six months to a year,

and present council members with an environmental report that incudes a

detailed blight study and relocation guidelines for the project.