City to return 10 lots and pay $75,000

Paul Clinton

More than two years after losing a lawsuit to local oil drillers, city

leaders agreed to hand over land they had long hoped to use as a public

park.

The City Council unanimously approved a settlement at its Monday

meeting that would transfer 10 lots of land and $75,000 to Robert Brindle

and John Thomas.

The council voted unanimously to accept the settlement and roll back

an ordinance that zoned the area for parkland. Mayor Debbie Cook recused

herself from the vote, since she lives near the land, and

recently-appointed Councilwoman Grace Winchell abstained. Winchell said

she had not been involved in the settlement discussions.

The council also unanimously agreed to use money in the city’s general

fund to replace park funds that were used to buy three of the parcels.

Cook was also absent for that vote.

The lots are spread across 66 separate parcels of land at Edwards

Street and Ellis Avenue. Brindle and Thomas jointly operate oil wells at

the property.

The land has been used as an oil field since the 1920s, when a former

owner sold off the mineral rights as the Copeland Oil Lease.

The city began buying the land in the 1970s.

Brindle and Thomas sued Huntington Beach shortly after the City

Council, in 1995, passed an ordinance designating the land as a park.

The city was handed a courtroom defeat in 1999, when a judge ruled

that the ordinance infringed on the property’s value. In June 2000, the

council agreed to pursue a settlement with Brindle and Thomas.

“We lost,” Councilwoman Pam Julien Houchen said about the city’s

motivation to reach an amicable settlement. “I thought it would have been

a great park.”

A group of local activists had pushed the city to put the decision to

a vote before agreeing to the settlement. The group, led by former Mayor

Dave Sullivan, lobbied the council to include it on the ballot under the

provisions of Measure C.

That initiative, which passed in 1990, requires a majority approval by

voters for any sale, lease or exchange of a “public utility or park or

beach.”

However, City Atty. Gail Hutton disagreed that the deal falls under

Measure C. In an April 15 internal memo, Hutton said the city-owned

parcels should not be considered a park because they are “not available

for use by the public for recreational purposes.”

* PAUL CLINTON is a Times Community News reporter. He covers City Hall

and education. He may be reached at (714) 965-7173 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .