HB Neighbors

The Appeal to Protect Downtown Presses Ahead

On September 1st, Huntington Beach Neighbors filed an appeal, in its litigation against the City of Huntington Beach, concerning the Downtown Specific Plan update. This lawsuit questions the sufficiency of the Plan’s Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act. The City attempted to stop our appeal so they may proceed unimpeded with the expanded development of Downtown. The court ruled in favor of Huntington Beach Neighbors and supported our rights. David Rice, President of Huntington Beach Neighbors, commented, “Our Board of Directors and our Attorneys are convinced that the trial judge, in ruling for the City, made a number of significant errors.  Our entire set of objections is posted on our website and can be seen by clicking here.  As demonstrated by our appeal, we remain fully committed to going-the-distance in our fight with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life in Downtown. We expect to succeed with this appeal, which should force the City to provide the due process we are entitled to. This process was created to properly inform decision makers with an accurate picture of a plan, along with the goal of protecting the residents, property owners, businesses and the environment.

Dear HB Neighbors Members,

Next Wednesday, June 15th, in Marina del Ray, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) will be holding its public hearing on the HB Downtown Specific Plan (DTSP).  Written comments must be received by the CCC no later than Noon, this Friday, June 10th, by email, to Meg Vaughn, at the CCC.  Meg’s email address is mvaughn@coastal.ca.gov.

If you can, please email your written comments by this Friday’s Noon deadline.  We apologize for the late notice, but the 100+ page CCC Staff Report was first made available only last Friday, June 3rd.

Your written comments to the CCC need to contain the following information in the upper right hand corner:

Agenda Item:  W 9b
Application No.:  HNB 2-06
Your Name
Your Position (see below)

While you are, of course, free to make whatever written or oral comments you may choose on your own personal behalf, HB Neighbors officially is opposing the DTSP.  If you agree with our position, in the upper right hand corner of your written comments to the CCC, you would need to make the following notation after Your Name:

Oppose Project

If you can attend this meeting, we very much would appreciate it.  You may speak individually, as referenced above, if you are so inclined.  Public speakers are limited to five minutes or less (probably as little as two minutes), depending on the number of people who want to speak.

The DTSP is early on the CCC agenda for Wednesday, June 15th.  The meeting starts that day at 8:00 AM, but the DTSP will be considered no earlier than sometime after 9:00 AM.  Our best guess is that the DTSP will be heard sometime before Noon.  The phone number for this meeting, which is good only for the day of the meeting, is 562-972-9854.  The address for the meeting is:

Marina del Ray Hotel
13534 Bali Way
Marina del Ray, CA  90292

Some of our members, along with some people who oppose the local Poseidon project (which is not on this month’s CCC agenda), might try to organize a car pool for the meeting.  We are talking about leaving HB pretty early, at 6:45 or 7:00, and returning immediately after the DTSP hearing, possibly leaving Marina del Ray by Noon.  Please write us back if you are interested in a possible car pool.

Again, we hope that you will email your written comments by this Friday at Noon, and we hope that you will attend the hearing, on Wednesday, June 15th.  Thank you as always for your support.

The Board of Directors
HB Neighbors

This Wednesday, May 11th, the HB Community Services Commission, will consider the naming of Triangle Park, at 6:00 PM, in the City Council Chambers, at City Hall, 2000 Main Street.  Please attend and speak, and email ddominguez@surfcity-hb.org, your thoughts on why it makes more sense to keep the historic Triangle Park name. 

Reportedly, there are a couple of other names which will be seriously considered at this Commission meeting, and later by the City Council, which has final authority in the matter.  Unless we flood the Commission and Council with emails and speakers, we are at risk of losing this 99-year-old park’s historic name for all future generations.  Please attend, speak, and write in your comments to keep the Triangle Park name. 

 Thank you for all of your support.

HB Neighbors (HBN) assembled information from different government sources to produce a Survey of Downtown Huntington Beach Bars and Restaurants. HBN, a Downtown neighborhood organization, produced this survey as a planning tool for government decision makers.

The survey lists 39 establishments that are licensed to serve alcohol of the 62 restaurants in the Downtown area. These 39 restaurants and bars have a capacity of 6355 occupants. Most of these establishments are within two city blocks of Main and Walnut Streets. This survey highlights that the Downtown area has the highest concentration of bars in Orange County, and one of the highest in California.  Twenty-three of the locations have an Entertainment Permit allowing live music, DJs, or dancing.  Eighteen of the bars close after midnight spilling up to 3200 young bar patrons onto Main Street in the early morning hours.  This creates policing issues, littering, parking and noise issues in the surrounding residential neighborhoods, loitering, and the highest concentration of crime within the city. The nearby Pacific City Development, now stalled in the construction stage, will bring at least eight new alcohol serving restaurants or nightclubs with an estimated additional capacity of 1800 patrons. This will create a total of over 8000 patrons being served alcohol within the small Downtown core area.

Huntington Beach has the highest number of DUI’s for midsized cities in California, and the HB Police Department reported the primary source was Downtown bars.

The city states it is promoting tourism while the HB Neighbors website www.hbneighbors.com  claims the city is instead promoting kids to party in the bars on weekend nights at the expense of a more balanced retail area. “The Downtown area has become one dimensional” states Angela Rainsberger a board member of HBN. “Most of the bars and restaurants now focus on the youth below 30 years old instead of a balance of restaurants catering to families and all age groups” Angela stated.

Other beach cities such as Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Belmont Shores, Seal Beach, and Newport Beach discourage the expansion of bars and restaurants to allow retail stores to flourish.

HBN is requesting a partnership of the city planners, Downtown business owners, local residence, and the HB Police Department to create a Comprehensive Alcohol Plan with stated goals, strategies, and implementation plan. The city’s Economic Development Department should change their emphasis to promoting retail businesses catering to tourist and the local neighborhood, including non-peak time periods.

HBN acknowledges the Downtown area has a long history of bars and entertainment venues.  During the years of the Golden Bear, there was only seven places with alcohol licenses.  Today, there are 39 places and six of them are the approximate size of the former Golden Bear. Only in recent years has the Downtown area grown to the highest concentration of bars in Orange County.

HBN claims the city has missed the opportunity of creating a smaller version of Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade (with a balance of retail stores) and instead created an unbalanced emphasis of youth bars. Angela concludes “most late night bar patrons are not tourist”.

 The LA Times has cover story

Bar scene gives Huntington Beach both headaches and a hearty revenue boost

 Welcome to Huntington Beach, the “Jersey Shore” of Orange County.

When the sun sets here, a three-block stretch of innocuous-looking stucco buildings morphs from a place where shopkeepers hawk beach towels and surfboards to one where bartenders sling bottles of vodka, illuminated by black light and neon.

But the debauchery comes with a price.

Huntington Beach is ranked No. 1 in victims killed and injured in alcohol-involved traffic accidents among cities its size in California. DUI arrests are more than twice the number in Irvine, a college town roughly the same size.

With 1,419 DUI arrests last year and a clear problem on their hands, city officials decided they needed to tackle the problem. The City Council placed restrictions on new bars — no beer pong or drink minimums, for example — and police began tracking where people had their last drink before their arrests.

Reed the full story at : http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-huntington-beach-alcohol-20110403,0,2795221,full.story

HB Neighbors is calling for nominations for the BOD.  Please submit your name if you wish to run for the BOD or if you wish to nominate another member of the organization.  In order to run for the BOD the nomine must be a contributing member of HB Neighbors.  Once the nomination process is complete the official voting process will begin.  If you have not become a contributing member of HB Neighbors please join our organization today so that you can participate in the election process. 

The current nominees in alphabetical order are:

Angela Rainsberger – Incumbent Director

Clem Domengius

Dave Rice – Incumbent President

Dave Sullivan  – Incumbent Director

Richard Plummer  – Incumbent Vice President

Steve West

Merle Moshiri

To become a member of HB Neighbors Please complete the membership form found on the [MEMBERSHIP] tab and send it in today.

Triangle Park has been a city park for its entire history of almost 100 years.

Because of what we believe was an administrative oversight, it was not until very recently, listed on the HB City park inventory list. It was deeded to the city in 1912 as a park by the Huntington Beach Company and was named Triangle Park at that time. 

Please come to the meeting and show your support for the park to remain Triangle Park.  Triangle Park is being treated as a new park, but it has been a park for 99 years and we do not wish to have it renamed.

SUBJECT: Park Naming – 525 Main Street

If you are unable to attend please write to the city and express that you support the historic name “Triangle Park”.  ddominguez@surfcity-hb.org

Public Meeting Notice Park Naming 03 17 11

The Main Street Library is designated as a local landmark in the City’s General Plan Historic and Cultural Resources Element, as is the Dwyer Middle School.  Triangle Park is the second oldest park in the City, and may be its most historic park as well.

The New Downtown Plan’s large parking structure and performing arts venue at this site almost certainly would require a demolition of the Library and a substantial degradation of the Park.  As such, these negative impacts to our historic landmarks should have been analyzed by the City as a part of its review of the New Downtown Plan.  These negative impacts were not evaluated by the City.

Does the New Downtown Plan provide enough protections for the historic Triangle Park and Main Street Library?  You be the Judge.

From at least the October 12, 2009 Planning Commission vote, the New Downtown Plan restricted four story buildings to larger lots, of at least 25,000 square feet.  Similarly, the City Council re-confirmed this provision in its approval of the New Downtown Plan on November 2, 2009.

Near the end of a later meeting on January 19, 2010, called solely to consider a decrease in the number of residential units per acre, Council Member Don Hansen moved to drastically reduce the minimum lot size to only 8,000 square feet for four story buildings.  His motion passed with only three votes, by Council Members Hansen, Keith Bohr, and Devin Dwyer.  Given the difficulty in assembling larger building lots, this change could triple the amount of space devoted to future four story buildings in our Downtown.

We call Council Member Hansen’s motion the 11th Hour Amendment for good reason.  This issue was NOT on the Council’s agenda for January 19, 2010.  This issue was NOT in the Staff Report from January 19, 2010 for the New Downtown Plan agenda item for the Council.  There was NO WAY that the public could have known that this issue was going to be discussed or voted on.  Council Member Hansen’s motion was made AFTER the close of public comments.  It was literally a last minute, late night, stealth change to the density and building heights of the New Downtown Plan.  These former, lesser limits already had been approved twice over the preceding three months.

Should Council Members Hansen, Bohr, and Dwyer have made this last minute, late night, substantial change in building density and heights for the New Downtown Plan, without any notice to the public or public comments?  You be the Judge.

According to the City’s Environmental Impact Report on the New Downtown Plan, “the existing parking demand greatly exceeds the parking capacity on summer holidays and special events . . . , with at-capacity conditions occurring during peak summer days, particularly on weekends. . . . The development thresholds identified in the existing Downtown Parking Master Plan have been met.”  And the City’s parking study, completed in 2007, preceded the occupancy of the Strand and other vacant Downtown commercial spaces.

Despite such undisputed facts, the New Downtown Plan eliminates the Downtown Parking Master Plan, allows for a net loss of 50 existing, on-street parking spaces along Main and 5th Streets, and reduces the ratio of required parking per square foot in new developments.  These less restrictive parking requirements will only worsen Downtown’s already strained summer parking conditions, in the face of the New Downtown Plan’s and Pacific City’s 2.3 million square feet of permitted new building.

With Downtown’s already strained summer parking conditions, does it make sense to allow a massive amount of new development while reducing parking requirements at the same time?  You be the Judge.