Best by 2020? City says so

When city leaders were asked to imagine newspaper headlines they’d like to read in the year 2020, they came up with “H.B. deemed best city in U.S.A. to live, work and play” and “Renewable energy makes AES power plant obsolete.”

Now, as City Council gears up to adopt a blue print for future growth, they have a chance to have those dreams become reality.

An initial strategic plan for the city was chalked out almost five years ago, initiated by the City Council in 2000 with ex-mayor Pam Houchen at the helm. The new plan was the brainchild of a three-member subcommittee of council members Jill Hardy, Keith Bohr and Don Hansen, with input from the entire council. It borrows heavily from the previous plan while making some changes to its style and focus.

“The main difference is we want to have methods for measuring our progress on the goals we have established,” Mayor Dave Sullivan said. The subcommittee has been fine-tuning the proposal since March 2005.

Among its future goals, the City Council plans to look at funding, designing and building city services projects that include revamped fire stations, a police firing range and a new senior center, as well as incorporating more green building practices for city projects and devising a master plan for transportation.

The city’s vision statement for Huntington Beach 2020 reads: “An engaged, sustainable, family-friendly community that is safe, vibrant and attractive to tourists, residents and businesses alike,” giving a human touch to the previous statement.

“I think the process of getting there [the vision statement] is as important as what we come up with as the vision statement,” said City Administrator Penelope Culbreth-Graft.

The vision statement fashioned in 2001 left out the family-friendly part, Culbreth-Graft said, but the new vision statement states it up front, “otherwise we would overlook family-oriented programs and miss out on building a relationship with the community.”

Closing Main Street to automobile traffic and developing downtown is set to be a major priority with the council. The project will include additional parking and pedestrian promenade.

Figuring out how to cope with an increase in the aging population and in housing needs; preserving the Bolsa Chica wetlands; promoting tourism; and handling the surplus school sites are some of the most pressing concerns of the City Council.

“The plan helps us get on the same page,” Culbreth-Graft said.

And that helps to select projects in line with the City Council’s main concerns. Funding every project is not possible, Culbreth-Graft said, adding: “In government, there’s always more need than there is money.”

The council is also examining ways to improve efficiency of its development review process and has hired a consulting firm to review city development fees. Huntington Beach has higher development fees compared with other cities.

A key strategy is to come up with a vision and plan to improve the Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue corridors. The city’s economy will also be poised to take greater advantage of revenues from being a top-notch tourist destination.

The roadmap also calls for creating a long-term financial plan to pay for infrastructure improvements and other city liabilities. The city hit a financial rough patch about four years ago with budget and staff cuts, Councilman Don Hansen said.

“[A] plan that gives us flexibility in any circumstance and having a long-term financial strategy is one of the most prudent things we can do,” he said.

Potential threats such as rising energy costs, a sudden loss in utility users tax or drop in property values also likely will be factored into a contingency financial plan.

The council will adopt the plan by the end of May or June. The plan will change as four City Council seats are slated for November elections, but Culbreth-Graft hopes the blueprint’s broad range will ensure its usefulness.

The city hired Management Partners, a consulting firm with a satellite office in Laguna Woods, for about $25,000, to come up with the roadmap along with input from the City Council and officials.