Beautification project launched in Huntington Beach’s Oak View neighborhood

The Oak View neighborhood is the most densely populated in Huntington Beach.

That can mean lots of cars — and also lots of children running around.

But millions of dollars of improvements are coming to beautify the predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood and make it safer.

The city held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the $6.5-million Oak View Neighborhood Beautification Project.

“Oak View has always been a community to be proud of,” Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark said at the ceremony, repeating her comments in Spanish at the end of her speech. “We’re going to make it an even better place to learn, play and come together.”

The project is primarily funded by a $5-million Caltrans grant through Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Clean California Initiative, with the city of Huntington Beach kicking in about $1.5 million.

Members of the Caltrans District 12 Maintenance and Operations group turn the first dirt on the $6.5-million Oak View Beautification Project during Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

It will include myriad improvements on Oak and Ash lanes, including development of recreation areas, a habitat garden, pedestrian safety improvements, added street signage, enhanced lighting and landscaping and ongoing litter and graffiti abatement.

Bobi Hettick, Caltrans District 12 deputy director of maintenance and operations, congratulated Huntington Beach staff on winning the competitive bid to earn funding. A Fountain Valley resident, she said she’s in Surf City often and can’t wait to see how the beautification project helps the Oak View community.

“For us at Caltrans, safety is our No. 1 priority,” she said. “Places where cars and pedestrians, bicycles and kids meet, those need to be safer for our neighborhoods. The improvements that this project is going to bring are going to make it safer for our most vulnerable users, which is bicycles and pedestrians and especially the students and the parents from Oak View Elementary School.”

The $1.2-billion Clean California Initiative has included hundreds of projects across the state, Hettick said, including the state highway system but also local grant projects and tribal lands and parks. Since the program began in 2021, Caltrans Orange County has collected 84,000 cubic yards of litter and debris in Orange County, she said.

Huntington Beach resident Elia Hernandez, far right, lives in the local neighborhood with her kids who will benefit from the Oak View Beautification Project.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The Oak View neighborhood is bordered by Beach Boulevard, Gothard Street and Warner and Talbert avenues.

Teffany Nowell, the director of the Oak View Family Resource Center, said these improvements are needed and welcomed by the people of the community.

“We have a very rich culture within these four streets that we want to be able to share with the rest of Huntington Beach,” Nowell said. “As much as we are extremely proud of being Oak View, we also want to be a representation of Huntington Beach as a whole.

“This will help lift a lot of spirits. We’re dealing with a major housing crisis, and we’re still dealing with income inequality and unemployment. Those are things that are constantly challenging our community, so giving them a little bit of hope, that’s what I feel the project will do.”

Officials said the project is scheduled to be completed by this summer.