Group’s fight against eminent domain gaining steam

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A group fighting to stop the city from buying

Downtown homes by force has collected more than half the signatures

necessary to qualify for a referendum, organizers said.

Huntington Beach Citizens Against Redevelopment Excess must gather 10,000

names by Nov. 18 to qualify for the March ballot. Group leader Jim Lane

said more than 5,000 petitioners have already signed, and a big push this

weekend should bring in a few thousand more. “We’re going to be out in

force all over the city.”

The petition drive began last month after the council formally adopted

the power of eminent domain over Downtown residences.

Before taking the vote, City Councilman Tom Harman pointed out that the

law would only apply to nine apartments above El Don liquor store on the

400 block of Pacific Coast Highway. “We’re not condemning hundreds of

homes where people have lived for hundreds of years.”

But resident Greg Kordich said he signed the petition anyway because the

government should never have the power to kick people out of their

residences.

“It’s criminal,” he said. “Don’t they do that in Russia?”