Huntington Beach Ca Development And Redevelopment

The last time bulldozers rumbled through Huntington Beach's Talbert Marsh, it was to block the tides that made it a productive wetland. Now, the bulldozers are back--this time to give the parched land another chance at life. Since ocean access was cut off in the 1950s to the former salt marsh at the city's southern tip, it has become a dusty vacant lot, home to little more than parked cars, stagnant runoff water and windblown trash.

A San Diego Superior Court judge reversed her earlier ruling Friday by reinstating much of the Bolsa Chica mesa developer's lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission. "We're pleased with the judge's ruling," said Lucy Dunn, executive vice president of developer Hearthside Homes. Hearthside and landowner Signal Landmark, a sister company, sued the commission over a November decision that restricted development to 1,235 homes on the upper portion of a 230-acre two-tier mesa.

Sharp Electronics Corp. said Monday it will spend $34 million to build a regional headquarters here that will employ 265 and serve as the hub for sales, marketing, service and warehousing operations in the Western United States. The 539,000-square-foot complex, which includes a warehouse, will be built on a 23.4-acre site at Springdale Street and Bolsa Avenue. The vacant property was purchased from neighboring McDonnell Douglas. Sharp will be moving from its regional offices in Carson.

A judge has defended a California Coastal Commission decision to bar construction on portions of the Bolsa Chica mesa near Huntington Beach, yet the battle there between a developer and environmentalists is by no means over. In a decision that one lawyer described as "95% good for the Coastal Commission," Superior Court Judge Sheridan Reed in San Diego announced Friday that he was dismissing portions of a lawsuit filed by a mesa landowner.

If all goes according to plan, the Huntington Beach Art Center--scheduled to open in spring 1991--is likely to become Orange County's most adventurous community art center. It has savvy leadership, wide-ranging and innovative program plans, and support from both the redevelopment-minded city and the recently formed nonprofit Huntington Beach Art Center Foundation. The center will occupy an 11,000-square-foot former Southern California Edison building purchased by the city for $758,000 in 1988.

In 1910, land was cheap in this seaside city, particularly in the eroded gullies northwest of downtown. So Encyclopedia Americana bought some tracts of "worthless land" and gave away small plots to anyone who bought a $126 set of books. Though the venture was not a huge marketing success, some 600 lots were handed out to people across the nation--enough to give modern-day Huntington Beach a chronic headache.

A pilot's dream: I' m flying around up in beautiful, clear weather and the sun is shining on the ocean, and I can see for miles, but now it's time to set it down somewhere, and I start looking for a place. And there, right near the ocean, I see this tiny little strip, with lots of small planes, really terrific ones, parked next to it. I don't need clearance, either -- nobody on the radio telling me what to do.

Plans for an 86-foot-tall tower and a water pump station for the sewer treatment plant on Brookhurst Street near Pacific Coast Highway were approved this week by the City Council. As a condition of its approval of the $6-million project, the council required the Orange County Sanitation Districts to make landscaping improvements. The agency has a $2-million landscaping plan, which the city is helping to develop, said Tom Dawes, agency planning engineer.

Developers of Surf City's long-delayed oceanfront resort project Monday unveiled plans for a new $100-million hotel, conference and retail center--the latest reincarnation of a development that has been stalled since the late 1980s. The plans put forth by the Robert Mayer Corp., owner of the Waterfront Hilton which sits on 3.5 acres of the 50-acre site, supersede a time-share project announced by the company just last year.

A company that operates waterfront restaurants in Hawaii and California is the top candidate to build a new restaurant at the base of the city pier, officials said Thursday. If talks this week are successful, TS Restaurants will build a $5-million restaurant called Duke's Surf City to replace the former Maxwell's by the Sea, which closed early this year, city and company officials said.

Developer Hearthside Homes is moving forward with plans to build 387 homes on the upper portion of the two-tier Bolsa Chica mesa, while letting the courts decide the fate of the rest of its land. "It appears that everyone agrees that this is where development should go," said Lucy Dunn, Hearthside's executive vice president. "There was no opposition to development on the upper bench at any time by any group."

The California Energy Commission on Wednesday voted to allow giant power company AES to move ahead with plans to restart two mothballed generators in Huntington Beach even without the company's guarantee that it would sell the electricity within the state. The decision permits AES to begin operating the generators next month.

Betting on an old-line city in a slowing economy, the owner of the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort in Huntington Beach said Monday that it has started construction next door on a 519-room resort that would be one of Orange County's 10 largest hotels. The Robert Mayer Corp., in conjunction with Hyatt Corp., also said it landed permanent financing for what will be called the Hyatt Regency Grand Coast Resort, which would dwarf the 290-room Hilton. Stephen K.

Betting on an old-line city in a slowing economy, the owner of the Waterfront Hilton in Huntington Beach said Monday it has started construction next door of a 519-room resort that will be one of Orange County's 10 largest hotels. Robert Mayer Corp., in conjunction with Hyatt Corp., also said it landed permanent financing for what will be called the Hyatt Regency Grand Coast Resort, which will dwarf the 290-room Hilton. Stephen K.

A power company seeking approval to restart two gas-fired generators in Huntington Beach on Thursday flatly refused a city request for a $14-million guarantee that it will remedy any environmental problems should studies link the plant to polluted shores. AES Corp., California's largest private generator, also opposed the California Energy Commission's plan to put a five-year cap on any fast-track permit it grants to refire the 50-year-old generators formerly run by Southern California Edison.

The California Coastal Commission on Tuesday gave lukewarm endorsement to a controversial plan to restart a pair of Huntington Beach gas-fired generators, bending to the overriding urgency of the energy crisis. "I don't want this commission to be perceived as standing in the way of resolving the energy crises," Commissioner Cecilia Estolano said.

A progress report outlining accomplishments of the Community Development Block Grant Program over the past year is available at the Civic Center. Block grants have allowed the city to improve living conditions for lower-income residents as well as to upgrade parks and recreational facilities, Mayor Grace Winchell said.

In a move that may set a precedent for funding part of future housing developments, the City Council this week agreed to establish the city's first Mello-Roos special tax district. The city plans to impose an additional property tax on future residents of 113 homes being built near Ellis Avenue and Golden West Street to install utilities, widen Ellis and make other improvements. The special tax district will take effect if a majority of the area's seven landowners approve the idea.

The California Energy Commission recommended Friday that the hotly debated plan to restart two gas-fired generators in Huntington Beach proceed on a fast track but warned about potential threats to air, water and wildlife. The commission's 362-page preliminary report is the first formal assessment since the project's approval process was accelerated by Gov. Gray Davis in an effort to help ease California's electricity shortage. The commission said AES Corp.

In the decades-long battle over whether to develop the Bolsa Chica mesa, the Huntington Beach City Council debated Monday whether to seek state funds to buy the scenic bluff-top property. The proposal won praise from environmentalists, who have fought for years to preserve Bolsa Chica, a coastal stretch between Huntington Beach and Seal Beach that includes the largest wetlands complex in Southern California.