CITY COUNCIL WRAP-UP

WHAT HAPPENED:

The Planning Commission has added religious assembly and public school

use to a one-square-block area in the city.

WHAT IT MEANS:

The commission unanimously approved reshaping the zoning in the area

bounded by Edwards Street on the west, Garfield Avenue on the south,

Goldenwest Street on the east and Ellis Avenue on the north.

The change incorporates Huntington Seacliff Elementary School, on

Garfield Avenue.

The addition of religious uses also puts the city in conformance with

a federal law, known as the Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons

Act of 2000, which requires cities to carve out a place for churches.

The Praise Christian Center of Huntington Beach has applied to the

city to hold services in a building in the area. City fire marshals have

also said an A-frame building the church used for a chapel doesn’t meet

safety codes.

The approval sends the new zoning item to the City Council, adds

religious uses and imposes new building standards for the area.

Vote: 7-0

IN FAVOR / AGAINST

WHAT HAPPENED:

City planners laid out the timetable for a privately-financed

desalination plant in the pipeline for Huntington Beach.

WHAT IT MEANS:

Executives with Poseidon Resources plan to complete their

environmental review of the project in June.

The Poseidon Seawater Desalination Plant would be built on an

approximately seven-acre section of the AES power plant. The plant,

expected to cost as much as $240 million, would convert the seawater used

to cool the plant into potable drinking water.

One gallon of drinking water would be produced for every two gallons

of seawater.

Executives with both Poseidon and AES are negotiating a lease to

install the plant next to the power plant.

The project must be approved by the commission, but is not expected to

go the the City Council. It must also be approved by the California

Coastal Commission.

Vote: No vote

NEXT MEETING

When: May 28, 7 p.m.

Where: City Council chambers, 2000 Main St.