Sounding Off:

The following opinion is in regards to the Ward Garfield Specific Plan:

I find it extremely disturbing and deeply troubling that Southern California Edison would choose to ignore the public safety and numerous other issues regarding the Ward Garfield Specific Plan. Because Edison is the sole applicant, they can make the ultimate decision to remove their application and do what is in the best interests of public safety and the affected citizens of Huntington Beach. However, they have chosen an alternative path and choose to continue with this specific plan.

Just what is it going to take before Edison officials realizes that they’ve made a mistake and they pull their project application? Is it going to take 35- to 40-foot recreational vehicles going up in flames and killing helpless senior citizens in the mobile home park? Or perhaps, a child riding their bicycle getting run over by a “fifth-wheeler” in a hurry to “get to the river”? Maybe a mom taking her baby for an afternoon stroll through the neighborhood being “barreled down” by some careless driver who can’t wait to take their boat, jet-skis and/or motorcycles out for the weekend?

All of this in a “residentially zoned” neighborhood. This operation belongs in an area zoned for industrial use.

Why can’t Edison come to the conclusion that parking RVs under high-voltage power lines in a residential neighborhood is not in its best interests, nor the community’s best interests?

Perhaps money is the issue. Perhaps Edison is “on the hook” for all the development costs incurred thus far for the project. A reasonable assumption would be that there was some sort of “cancellation” clause entered into the contract between Edison and the developer. If Edison pulls the project, then Edison is ultimately responsible for the entire costs this far, which could be in the millions.

Therefore, Edison officials will not pull the project, because they would have to pay up, instead masking their risk-taking and mistake as “Agreements in place will be honored.” Instead, they are choosing to put the public safety at risk by proposing to put 557 RVs in a residential-zoned neighborhood.

Is this just another example of a “corporate America” gone wild and chasing the almighty dollar, without any regard for the public, similar to the financial crisis this entire country and world just experienced? Ask those traders from Goldman Sachs whose interest they were looking out for. How much risk did they expose their company/clients to?

This behavior just begs the question, “Is this how good corporate citizens act”?

Edison, in costume as “good citizens” who are concerned for the environment, is all the while backstabbing longtime residents of Huntington Beach by tearing out a local nursery that’s been there for more than 20 years, displacing local jobs, removing habitat for coyotes and increasing traffic, pollution and potential crime in a neighborhood that averages more than 20 years of home ownership.

This project does not support the General Plan land use and is not compatible with the existing neighborhood.

TIM KARPINSKI is a Huntington Beach resident.