Huntington Beach may annex tiny Sunset Beach

The Huntington Beach City Council plans to decide Monday whether to annex Sunset Beach, even though the small community along Pacific Coast Highway is trying to become its own city.

Absorbing Sunset Beach is expected to bring in about $624,000 annually from various sources including property, sales and transient occupancy taxes, according to a preliminary study by Huntington Beach.

Sunset Beach has raised about $150,000 to fund its incorporation effort and has begun the process, but a Huntington Beach decision to annex Sunset would trump the desires of the smaller community.

“We don’t get a vote, the people of Huntington Beach don’t get a vote, but the City Council gets a vote,” said Greg Griffin, president of the Sunset Beach Community Assn.

Griffin said his group may consider a legal challenge if Huntington Beach is allowed to automatically annex Sunset Beach.

The community association had asked the City Council to wait until either Sunset Beach completes the incorporation process or the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees land-use decisions in unincorporated areas, rejects the cityhood effort. But the council decided to go ahead with its vote.

That doesn’t mean the council won’t let Sunset Beach finish the process, said Councilman Joe Carchio. “I don’t think that anybody has really made up their minds,” he said.

Carchio said the council wants to hear both sides and sort through the information. And although he believes annexation would be best, he doesn’t want to take that route against residents’ will.

“I don’t want to feel like we went over there and took somebody over,” he said.

Sunset Beach will continue working toward incorporation until LAFCO says it’s over, said Scot Dodson, a member of the community association.

“If they vote to annex Sunset Beach Monday night, it will not stop incorporation,” he said.

Since Sunset Beach was placed in what is called the “sphere of influence” of Huntington Beach, the community has been trying to figure out how to stay independent. But in the last year, the majority of residents have given up on remaining unincorporated, Griffin said.

“We were part of the county for 105 years, and we were comfortable being a part of the county,” he said.

“Now we’re faced with either going it alone or going it with Huntington Beach, and it’s just not going to be the same. And I think that causes people anxiety,” he said.

While some Sunset residents support being annexed, the majority are opposed, according to community polls.

Sunset Beach residents are concerned about Huntington Beach redeveloping their community and building it up and out. They also worry that their 1,300 voices will get lost in Huntington’s 201,000.

“We don’t feel that we would be represented there,” Griffin said. “We want to represent ourselves.”

britney.barnes@latimes.com