Jenny Marder
A developer is waiting in the wings for a decision on the proposed
Pacific City project, yet is ready to swoop in and fight it.
Officials from the Robert Mayer Corp., which owns the Hyatt
Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa and the Hilton Waterfront Beach
Resort that sit next to where Pacific City is slated to be built,
have said that if the Planning Commission approves the project at its
April 27 meeting, they will appeal it to the City Council.
The project lacks the necessary on-site parking, and fails to
adequately address traffic impacts, said Steve Bone, president of the
Robert Mayer Corp.
Projects never fail when they have too much parking, they fail
when they don't have enough," Bone said.
Bone also said that the project's environmental report, which the
Planning Commission unanimously approved on March 23, fails to
consider the potential for bacterial contamination on the beach. All
storm flows should be redirected to the sanitation district before
flowing into the ocean, Bone said.
"The beach is the soul and the lifeblood of Huntington Beach,"
Bone said.
Storm water runoff from the Pacific City project would be filtered
through a storm water treatment system on site. From there it would
flow into storm drains and then into the ocean. It would not be
treated for bacteria.
"Our water quality system is good enough or better than what's on
the Hyatt or Hilton property right now," said Michael Gagnet, vice
president of developer Makar Properties. "We are doing what we feel
are the best practices available today. I think we can develop a
water quality plan will be successful."
Gagnet said he's "a little confused" by the appeal.
"[Bone] is a neighbor and hopefully his concerns are truly based
on the environmental impacts of this project," Gagnet said. "But I
think that the questions that were raised by him have already been
answered everybody has a right for his voice to be heard and the
Robert Mayer Corp. is exercising that right."
Any appeal will have to wait, however, because the Planning
Commission delayed voting for the project Tuesday night to give an
activist group two more weeks to choose an independent consultant to
oversee the clean up of the property, which was formerly a Chevron
Corp. oil field.
The Chevron Corp. is responsible for thorough testing and cleanup
of the land, which is being overseen by the Huntington Beach Fire
Department. The resident's group, the Pacific City Action Coalition,
wants a third opinion.
