Council votes to OK plan

The Huntington Beach City Council approved the Downtown Specific Plan on Monday to increase development over the next two decades, but it will mostly preserve Triangle Park and the Main Street Library.

The council voted to approve a plan to streamline parking, design and development downtown at a nearly seven-hour meeting. The Downtown Specific Plan is a long-range planning document that dictates building and parking specifications and design guidelines.

The plan must now go to the Coastal Commission for approval.

All proposals were approved 6 to 1 with Councilwoman Jill Hardy voting against. Hardy said she couldn’t approve the plan because of the increase in density and the building allowed on Triangle Park.

The council overruled the Planning Commission’s changes to density to increase it in larger lots. Developers with three or more lots can put as many as 50 dwelling units per acre, up from the 35 units per acre the commission approved.

Triangle Park and the Main Street Library are going to be preserved, but the council approved changes to allow a small cafe and theater on the property.

Building heights’ maximums will be four stories, 45 feet, down from the staff’s five-story, 55-foot allowance recommendations.

Restaurants with alcohol that stay open past 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday and midnight Friday to Saturday will have to go before the Planning Commission for approval.

The council also approved the plan’s Environmental Impact Report 6 to 1 with Hardy voting against it. Hardy was one of two residents who appealed the Planning Commission’s certification of the report Oct. 6.

Hardy and David Rice, a member of the Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Assn., a group opposed to any updates that would allow the destruction of the Main Street Library and Triangle Park, filed separate appeals with the City Clerk.

According to Hardy’s appeal, the report didn’t “adequately analyze and address traffic circulations and parking.”

Rice is alleging the report didn’t cover all impacted parties, that there wasn’t enough time for the public to review the final changes to the plan and that the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines of disclosure, according to his appeal letter. During the public comment, Rice said the residents didn’t have adequate notification.

“I think there is some responsibility that the taxpayers and voters in a community understand what is happening in the community,” Rice said.

About 40 residents spoke during public comment against the updates. Residents cited traffic issues, ongoing public safety problems with the Main Street bars and concerns over insufficient notification for residents. They urged council members to save the park and the library and lower density.

“If the businesses’ and residents’ input was implemented, you wouldn’t have had 40 people coming up tonight speaking against it,” said resident Richard Plummer, the founder of the Huntington Beach Residents for a Balanced Downtown, a grass-roots organization. “It doesn’t matter how many meetings you have and how many people speak if you don’t take their input.”

One of the main concerns for residents were changes that would allow the development of a cultural center on the park and destroy the library on it. Residents started a group, the Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Assn., to stop any development on the park and preserve the library. The association held two rallies and collected about 6,000 signatures on a petition against some of the changes to the plan.

There is no proposal for a center, but the Huntington Beach Marketing and Visitors Bureau commissioned a study to find out the feasibility of one.

While the association wasn’t happy about the increased building allowance on the park, spokesman Kim Kramer said the members can deal with it.

“It’s still a significant victory of the residents of Huntington Beach,” Kramer said.

The updates to the Downtown Specific Plan began after the City Council directed staff to make changes when current development thresholds started restraining development. The updates could make the downtown a more pedestrian-friendly, sustainable community, Councilman Dan Hansen said.

“I absolutely believe that this mixed-use concept needs to be embraced,” Hansen said.

The city has held a series of workshops and six study sessions on the updates. The plan went before the Planning Commission, which pared down the original updates to eliminated tiered parking at the beach and lowered building heights and density allowances to preserve the downtown’s “village feel.”

“The people were clear that they didn’t want this urban takeover of the downtown,” Commissioner Barbara Delgleize said.