Work Was the Avenue to Victory on Boulevard

Last weekend, while most folks were out celebrating the Fourth of July, a group of people gathered in shifts at James Lane’s house in Huntington Beach on a much different mission.

Lane, chairman of the 21-member Beach Boulevard Project Area Committee (PAC), said committee members took over his dining room, living room and part of one bedroom--ordering in pizza and downing dozens of cups of coffee--as they prepared two copies of a 346-page report in time for a crucial City Council meeting Monday night.

One member, Doug Longevin, worked through the night Sunday pasting photographs and captions in an album documenting the committee’s view that Beach Boulevard is not only not blighted, as city staff asserted, but on the economic upswing. Lane himself was up at 5 a.m. Monday, working the fourth day in a row so he could deliver the report to the city clerk’s office just 15 minutes before its 5 p.m. closing time.

But it was worth it.

Working on a $1,900 budget, the committee matched its report against one prepared by city consultants for $65,000--and won.

After a marathon meeting before 350 people, the City Council voted 5 to 2 at 3 a.m. Tuesday against a proposal to put a five-mile stretch of Beach Boulevard into a redevelopment area. The plan would have allowed the city to buy out property owners under laws of eminent domain and resell properties to developers at a lower cost. It would have affected 1,100 businesses, 400 property owners and 180 residents along the major north-south artery.

“There’s a time to lead, and a time to be led,” said Councilman John Erskine, referring to the committee as he voted to reject the redevelopment plan.

‘Didn’t Know Anything’

“The PAC did a tremendous job,” said Councilman Wes Bannister, who nevertheless voted for the proposal.

The PAC was formed under state law to advise the City Council about displacement of low-income residences and businesses by the redevelopment proposal. Its members and alternates were just about anyone who attended one of the early meetings and raised their hands when there was a call for volunteers.

“I didn’t know anything,” homeowner Margie Hunt said. “I just went down there because my property was involved. When I got there, I realized, come hell or high water, I was getting on the committee.”

About all that most of the members knew at the beginning was that there was something they did not like about the redevelopment proposal. By April 23, when they took a vote, 18 of the members voted against it, two voted for a modified plan and one voted for the proposal.

But the committee needed more than their opinions to sway the City Council to vote against the plan, which was supported by city staff members and consultants who said redevelopment was needed to clean up the boulevard and help improve traffic problems.

Hours of Asking Questions

“The council wanted to hear concrete proof from the committee,” Lane said. He said committee members “spent many hours at City Hall asking questions, reviewing documents, looking through building permits.”

George Pearson, who owns a mini-mall on Beach Boulevard at Warner Avenue, said committee members were confused by redevelopment law and court decisions, and felt initially that they were “up against something we couldn’t handle.”

One of the first things the committee did was hire land consultant Sherry Passmore of Arcadia for $1,000.

“It’s like teaching somebody how to walk,” Passmore said. “They begin to crawl, then all of the sudden they get up and understand it, and they walk by themselves.”

The committee also hired attorney Christopher Sutton and spent what other change they could find on working up an album that showed the better aspects of Beach Boulevard, to counteract what they said was the city staff’s pictures showing its worst side.

“We really did our homework,” Hunt said. “We worked hard. That’s why we were able to defeat this project.”