Century of citydom

Happy birthday, Huntington Beach.

As 100th anniversaries go, it was a packed one for Surf City, which put on a year of festivities to mark its centennial while juggling a legal controversy over the senior center, brutal state budget cuts, a changing of the guard in the Coast Community College District and much more.

With the economic woes and high-profile court cases, it sometimes felt like there wasn’t much to cheer about in 2009. But the year also saw promise in the possible annexation of Sunset Beach, and the reunion of 1960s music legends from the Golden Bear served as a reminder of the city’s place in popular culture.

Here are the top 10 stories of 2009:

1 Surf City turns 100Surf City turns 100

Huntington Beach celebrated its 100th birthday with a year-long centennial celebration that included something for everyone.

The Huntington Beach Centennial Celebration Committee put together 12 months’ worth of events, activities and exhibits celebrating everything from faith and sports to education and the arts.

“The idea here is to really reach out and touch everyone in the community,” committee Co-chairman Steve Bone said. “It was about celebrating in the respective communities in Huntington Beach.”

More than 30 volunteers worked for about two years and spent hundreds of hours each to plan the centennial.

The celebration kicked off with the city winning the Mayor’s Award for the Most Outstanding City for its Rose Parade float.

Among the events the city hosted were the Centennial Ball in January, a Central Park tree planting in April, discussions on diversity in June, a Youth Sports Day in August and Painting in the Streets, featuring plein air painters along Main Street, in September.

Huntington celebrated interfaith unity with the Blessing of the Waves at the pier and the Procession of Lights in September. In November, there was an Old Fashioned Picnic in the Park and the Light a Light of Love dedication of 100 snowflakes this month.

Surf City incorporated Feb. 17, 1909, and has grown into the fourth-largest city in the county and the 16th in the state as of last year. Huntington Beach draws more than 16 million visitors a year, and more than 200,000 people call it home.

“I thought they deserved a nice celebration and a little pat on the back,” said former Mayor and committee member Ralph Bauer.

2 Senior center blockedSenior center blocked

City plans to build a new $22-million senior center were halted when an Orange County Superior Court judge found the project to be in violation of the city’s general plan, state environmental laws and a state act.

Makar Properties was going to develop the center, and the bids for grading the land were already out when the court ordered the city to stop the project.

Judge David C. Velasquez in a Nov. 17 ruling said the city couldn’t use the entire $22 million on the project.

The city made an agreement with Makar to spend money from Pacific City, a 31-acre multi-use site, on developing the new center.

The money is part of the Quimby Act, which requires developers to pay a fee for projects that don’t create new open space.

The money must be used to preserve open space, establish recreational facilities or fund other facilities for future Pacific City residents’ use. The judge ruled using all the funds from Makar for the senior center violates the Quimby Act.

Makar has already put more than $1 million into the project, City Administrator Fred Wilson said.

The facility, which was to be built on a 5-acre section of Huntington Central Park, was expected to be completed in April 2011 and would have replaced the Michael E. Rodgers Seniors’ Center on Orange Avenue with a 45,000-square-foot, one-story center.

The Parks Legal Defense Fund, a citizens group, filed a lawsuit against the city in March 2008 challenging the project.

The city was ordered to go back to the drawing board and prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report looking into alternative locations.

The City Council voted Monday to appeal the court ruling.

3 Budget cuts hit homeBudget cuts hit home

The Huntington Beach City School District cut services, salaries and employees in June to stop a potential $21-million deficit over the next three years. In addition to laying off librarians, bus drivers, night custodians and special education instructional assistants, the district increased class sizes in the lower grades and converted kindergarten to full-day classes.

The Ocean View School District also boosted class sizes and released temporary teachers, while the Huntington Beach Union High School District trimmed summer school and Golden West College raised tuition $6 per unit.

The city, short $10.8 million in state funds, made significant cuts of its own.

The Police Department left more than a dozen vacant positions unfilled and passed on hiring a detention shift supervisor for jail operations.

Community Services cut the Summer Concert Series, four summer lifeguards and more. Funding for libraries was also cut significantly.

With budgets short, many residents stepped forward to raise money. PTAs increased their activity at schools around town, while a December swim-a-thon netted enough funds to keep community access alive for a few more months at the Huntington Beach High School Aquatics Facility.

4 A whole new beach?A whole new beach?

Surf City may be acquiring a little more surf in the near future, as the city stands to acquire the unincorporated area of Sunset Beach.

The Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission put the seaside community of 1,200 people under Huntington Beach’s sphere of influence July 8. Some residents said if they had to be annexed, they would prefer to join Seal Beach, but that city’s leaders passed on the idea in August.

The Sunset Beach Community Assn. passed out a survey soon after to see if residents wanted to incorporate as a city, but only 37% of the surveys came back and 48% of those voted yes.

In a meeting with the association, Huntington Beach Mayor Keith Bohr said his staff would do its best to honor Sunset Beach’s small-town atmosphere and preserve its unique mail system, in which residents pick up their mail at the post office.

Another change looked imminent in Sunset Beach, as Calvary Chapel of the Harbour — the neighborhood’s only church and, many believe, the only church in its history — sought permission from city leaders to move to a new, larger location in Huntington Beach.

5 Furor over downtownFuror over downtown

The city’s plan to update downtown Huntington Beach was met with opposition from residents who held rallies, signed petitions and filed a lawsuit claiming that the city violated state environmental laws.

The Downtown Specific Plan is a long-range planning document that dictates building and parking specifications and design guidelines. The plan will increase development over the next 20 years. The updates began when current development thresholds started restraining development.

Residents spoke out and wrote in to try to save Triangle Park and the Main Street Library from becoming a cultural center under the proposed updated plan.

Though officials said there was never any official plan to start construction, a feasibility study for the center by the Marketing & Visitors Bureau was leaked to the Independent, causing increased unease among residents.

The city ultimately voted to preserve most of the park and library and made changes to the staff recommendations to lower development.

The plan was approved by the Planning Commission and the City Council, and will go to the California Coastal Commission for approval.

6 Woods found guiltyWoods found guilty

A Huntington Beach man accused of killing a 14-year-old boy in a car crash was found guilty in November and sentenced to six years in state prison.

Jeffrey Woods, 22, had two prescription pills in his system and sent a text message a minute before he hit Danny Oates.

Danny was riding his bike along Indianapolis Avenue and Everglades Lane about noon Aug. 29, 2007, with a friend when Woods swerved across the median onto the wrong side of the road and hit Danny with his red Ford 150 pickup truck.

Danny was thrown through the air more than 150 feet and died on impact, while Woods went over the curb and hit a tree before crashing through a wall.

The trial took more than two years, and the delay left the Oates family and the community waiting for some kind of closure.

“I’m glad this is over. I respect the judge’s decision, and I’m done with this,” said Danny’s father, Paul Oates.

7 Chancellor steps downChancellor steps down

The Coast Community College District underwent a change in leadership as Chancellor Ken Yglesias, who had held the post for nearly five years, went on administrative leave in January. The district declined to give a reason for Yglesias’ departure, calling it “a personnel issue and a closed-session item.”

Yglesias resigned in March.

The former president of Golden West College, he had been with the district since 1985 and also served as a dean at Coastline Community College.

Coastline President Ding-Jo Currie, who took over as acting chancellor after Yglesias stepped down, became the district’s official new chancellor in November.

Upon taking office, she vowed “to weather the worst budget storm in our recent history while maintaining a focus on ensuring the highest quality education for our students’ success.”

8 Brethren backlashBrethren backlash

Neighbors of a Christian private school filed a lawsuit against the city over the expansion of the school’s gym, and the city is now looking at whether the school has been playing by the rules.

Brethren Christian Junior and Senior High School received city approval to build a 31-foot-tall, 26,785-square-foot gymnasium and hold Friday night football games, but the Planning Commission voted in November to look into possible violations of the school’s conditional use permit.

Residents have opposed the gymnasium from the start, saying it is too big for the school. Neighbors gathered more than 370 signatures for a petition opposed to the school’s expansion.

The city sent the school a notice of violation in October and a civil citation in November for using more lights than approved.

The Planning Commission could decide to revoke the school’s permit in 2010.

9 Williams suspect arrestedWilliams suspect arrested

For nearly two years, the disappearance of 23-year-old Dane Williams was the grimmest of mysteries in Huntington Beach. The Hurley International marketing intern left a nightclub in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter on Jan. 26, 2008, during a company convention and vanished without a trace before his body was found in a neighborhood alley three days later.

An autopsy proved inconclusive, and in the months following Williams’ death, the intern’s face lined bus stops around Southern California on a poster asking for information.

Hurley, Jack’s Surfboards and San Diego County Crime Stoppers offered $20,000 for information leading to an arrest, to no avail.

In September, San Diego police arrested 39-year-old Philong Huynh on suspicion of Williams’ sexual assault and murder as well as the sexual assault of another man. Huynh, who has pleaded not guilty, had his first preliminary hearing in December, with the hearing on Williams’ case set to begin in February.

10 Bear roars againBear roars again

Huntington Beach got a jolt of nostalgia in September as some of the acts from the Golden Bear, the city’s top music venue during the Woodstock era, reunited for a pair of shows.

For two nights, the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort rocked to the sounds of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ray Manzarek of the Doors, Chris Hillman of the Byrds and others.

The resort itself was decorated to look like the Golden Bear, which closed in 1986.

At the same time, a local grass-roots group launched a campaign to bring a new Golden Bear to town, proposing a concert hall with the same name and facade as the old building.