CITY COUNCIL WRAP-UP

The following items were considered by the City Council Monday:

APPEAL DENIED

The City Council appeared at first to consider following a staff recommendation to reverse a planning commission denial of permits, but ultimately denied it unanimously. A yes vote would have allowed the construction of a small commercial marina and a three-story caretaker’s house in a peninsula of city land at the end of Park Avenue in Huntington Harbour.

Fifty neighbors opposed to the project — many of whom live on unincorporated county land — showed up at the public hearing. More than a dozen residents said they foresaw far more traffic than their narrow street could handle, and a proposed 20-foot-wide driveway — eight feet narrower than normal county requirements — would make it impossible for ambulances and fire trucks to reach the site. Some also said they felt the marina was a ploy for the future caretaker to build a house where coastal zoning did not permit it.

The final nail in the coffin appeared to be a statement by Tom Barry, who owns a lot next door. He said that to protect his property he would grant no right of way to anyone trying to build a marina and had signed agreements with another neighbor not to do so.

The council voted 6-0 to deny the appeal. Councilman Keith Bohr was absent from Monday’s meeting.

WHAT IT MEANS

The property will remain as it is: fenced-off and undeveloped.

COMMITTEE CHANGE

Council members unanimously voted to replace Mayor Gil Coerper with Councilman Don Hansen on the beautification, landscape and tree committee.

WHAT IT MEANS

From here on, Hansen will have a greater voice in shaping the agenda on city beautification issues.

— Michael Alexander