Re: June 15, 2011 California Coastal Commission Meeting
Agenda Item W 9b
Application Number HNB 2-06
City of Huntington Beach Downtown Specific Plan (DSP)
OPPOSE PROJECT

Dear Members of the California Coastal Commission:

I am in opposition to the Project, because the City’s parking study is inadequate under CEQA and the Coastal Act (CA). Before the Project can be approved under CEQA and the CA, a new parking study must be completed. The DSP’s permitted development and parking requirements will deny reasonable beach access to the public because downtown business and residential parking needs will steel beach parking away from beach visitors.
The City found that the existing parking demands greatly exceed the parking capacity during peak summer weekends, holidays, and special events. The DSP parking study identifies the need for approximately 300 to 400 additional off-site parking spaces. The project proposes to completely eliminate the existing on-street parking along Main St from PCH to Orange Ave, and to reconfigure parking on 5th St. Together will result in the net loss of another 50 on-street parking spaces.
The plan allows 1.33 million sq/ft of new development in the DSP area. The associated parking plan reduces the ratio of required parking per sq/ft of gross floor area in the Downtown, thus increasing the parking shortage. The DSP’s supporting parking study was conducted on August 18 and 23, 2007. It was defective for the following reasons:
1. Conducted in late August after many students had returned to school or were preparing to return to school; not at the peak of the summer tourist season.
2. Many buildings in the DSP area were vacant or at less than full occupancy when the study was completed, and the study did not analyze building occupancy.
3. The parking study failed to analyze the effects of proposed projects in the area that would impact parking.
4. The in-lieu Parking Program does not adequately describe the number of outstanding in-lieu parking stalls that the City needs to construct or the outstanding fees needed to fund alternative parking facilities.

I urge you to deny the application and require the City to complete a new parking study to ensure that the DSP complies with CEQA and the CA, and will provide adequate parking for the DSP area’s many beach visitors for the decades to come. Thank you for your consideration and support.

March 23, 2011

Mr. David Dominguez Development Manager
Community Services Department
City of Huntington Beach
2000 Main Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Re: Naming of Triangle Park, 525 Main Street
Parks Naming & Memorials Committee, Community Services Commission

Dear Mr. Dominguez:

I own my home in the Townsquare Condominiums at the corner of Sixth and Main Streets in our downtown neighborhood. The Townsquare Condominiums abut 525 Main Street, and the park surrounding the Main Street Library, known as Triangle Park.

2009 Petition to Preserve Triangle Park – Signed by Almost 7,000 HB Residents

In 2009, I was very active in a petition drive to preserve Triangle Park and the Main Street Library. A group of neighborhood volunteers gathered signatures from nearly 7,000 Huntington Beach residents, all in favor of preserving Triangle Park as it is now, as it has been for close to 100 years. A sample page from this petition is attached. As a comparative gauge for our level of support, it took just over 14,000 votes to win a seat on the City Council in 2010.

The vast majority of these almost 7,000 Huntington Beach resident petition signers, in my opinion, would want the park to keep its long-standing historic name, Triangle Park. As a downtown homeowner and abutter, I urge the Parks Naming & Memorial Committee, the Community Services Commission, and the City Council to retain the name of this park as Triangle Park. Please pass along my letter and attachments to the Committee, the Commission, and the Council.

Triangle Park Is the Most Historic Park in the City – Nearly 100 Years Old

For your further reference, I have enclosed three archival articles from the Huntington Beach News. The first article is from the front page of the June 21, 1912 edition, announcing the creation of a new park. Quoting the underlined portion of this article, “The park has been named, because of its shape, Triangle Park.” As such, I believe that Triangle Park is the second oldest park in the City, after Circle Park, now called Farquhar Park, which dates back to 1911.

Mr. David Dominguez
March 23, 2009
Page 2

Lake Park also dates back to 1912, although I am not sure of the exact date. It is my understanding that Lake Park was not much of a functioning park for a number of years after 1912, during which time it was little more than a swamp.

I think that Triangle Park is the most historic park in the City, in part due to its status as the second oldest park in the City, dating back nearly 100 years. My opinion is further supported by Triangle Park’s importance, along with that of the Main Street Library, as the last intact remnants of the downtown Civic Center. The Civic Center and Triangle Park were a part of one contiguous campus from 1922 to 1973, when the Civic Center was relocated to its current address at 2000 Main Street.

Per the attached October 5, 1950 and September 27, 1951 Huntington Beach News articles, the Main Street Library was built on Triangle Park and was dedicated on September 30, 1951, sixty years ago this September. From the Huntington Beach Public Library’s portion of the City’s website, one can see that the Main Street Library for almost 25 years served as the main library for the entire City until the Central Library opened in 1975.

Triangle Park Has Been A City Park For Its Entire History Of Almost 100 Years

For its complete history, Triangle Park has been a park. It has functioned as a park. It has been regulated as a park, as evidenced by the park regulation signs presently facing the dogleg of Pecan Avenue. And it has been maintained as a park by the City.

I understand that, for some unexplained reason, Triangle Park had not been included in the City’s official parks inventory again until recently. I am convinced that this exclusion was solely due to a bureaucratic oversight.

For all of the above reasons, Triangle Park should NOT be re-named as a new park. It is NOT a new park. It is the second oldest park in our City, and our City’s most historic park. As such, it should NOT be re-named. Triangle Park should keep the name that it has proudly carried for our downtown neighborhood for the park’s entire history, for close to 100 years.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about this letter and its attachments. Thank you for your consideration and support.

Sincerely yours,

Richardson Gray

Did you read the DUI report that the police presented to the city council? It’s on the Document Library page of this website. The police are asking for help. I think we all need to give it to them.

“In spite of having 12 officers standing by to stop suspected drunk drivers, once the bars began to close, there was such a rush of suspected drunk drivers that within 10 to 15 minutes all of the officers had detained suspected drunk drivers. Those drivers were ultimately arrested while a large number of suspected drunk drivers continued to drive out of the parking structure with no one left to stop them. Our resources were so quickly overwhelmed we believe on any given night a large number of drunk drivers likely leave our downtown area undetected.”

We need to get this problem under control. Adding even one more bar is crazy. I agree we need to support our PD.

I’m upset that my tax dollars are going to pay more police to control a problem that should have been controlled by the City Council years ago.

Nancy

Andre Faubert