Environmental Impact Report

The city planning department will host a public workshop on its shopping cart containment ordinance passed earlier this year. The ordinance, which is meant to keep abandoned shopping carts off the streets, asks businesses to comply by developing containment and retrieval plans for stray carts. Businesses looking for some extra assistance in meeting the new rules can go to the workshop 11 a.m. to noon Nov. 29 at City Hall, Room B-8, 2000 Main St. Code enforcement personnel will give an overview of the ordinance and help attendees draw up a cart containment and retrieval plan.

The controversial plan to develop 111 homes and a park near the Bolsa Chica wetlands took another step forward Monday, as the City Council voted to approve the latest version of a project that has set developers and environmentalists at odds for more than a decade. The council voted 5 to 1, with Mayor Pro Tem Cathy Green absent, in favor of a detailed proposal that laid out streets, park space and other components of the plan by Corona-based Shea Homes. Dozens of residents, including members of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, attended the meeting to voice their opposition to the project, which they said would damage the wetlands and lead to traffic congestion in the adjoining neighborhood.

Planning Commissioner Mark Bixby cast a vote Tuesday on the permit and environmental report for the Huntington Beach Senior Center, after learning through the city attorney that his vote might be challenged by some in the community. Bixby was not advised by the attorney not to vote on the matter. He was only told that some in the community had concerns that he may be biased about the subject. The commission voted 4-3 to approve an environmental impact report and a conditional-use permit for the center.

The Huntington Beach City Council voted Monday to certify an environmental impact report for a proposed senior center at Central Park. But constructing the much-litigated proposal could be a ways off, as there is no ready funding for the $20-million project. The report was the second to come before the city after lawsuits dissolved earlier decisions made by the council. The city spent just under $2 million litigating and planning the controversial proposal. The council voted 5 to 2, with Connie Boardman and Joe Shaw dissenting.

The Huntington Beach Planning Commission further discussed the possibility of putting two tiered parking structures by the beach and increasing development in residential areas at a Downtown Specific Plan study session Tuesday. The Downtown Specific Plan is a long-range planning document that dictates building and parking specifications and design guidelines. The plan is being updated to increase development over the next 20 years. The update would consolidate the downtown from 11 separate districts to seven.

Residents and city planners are going into the home stretch of the Downtown Specific Plan’s study sessions with two left before the proposed changes go before the Planning Commission for a public hearing. The update would consolidate the downtown from 11 separate districts to seven, and encompass the area south of Goldenwest Street and north of Beach Boulevard along the beach and up to Palm Avenue in the downtown area. From Sixth Street north, the plan extends up to Walnut Avenue.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 2000 Main St. the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on The Village at Bella Terra development proposal. The project proposes to change Huntington Beach’s General Plan and zoning for the vacant Montgomery Ward site to allow 538 to 713 high-rise residential units. Huntington Beach Tomorrow wants citizens to know that the project environmental impact report states there will be significant and unavoidable traffic problems on streets north of Warner Avenue, east of Goldenwest Street and on the 405 Freeway for decades to come with this proposed development.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing next week to plan out a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly area with a town center near Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue. The Beach and Edinger Corridors Specific Plan includes a 459-acre area along Beach and Edinger, and along Edinger to Goldenwest Street. The plan would dictate land use and building intensity, guide building design and aesthetics, and allow a mixed-land use zoning to create a more visually pleasing area. The commission certified the plan’s Environmental Impact Report at its Dec. 8 meeting, and the plan must gain approval from the commission and City Council and be certified by the California Coastal Commission.

The Huntington Beach City Council voted Monday to extend an exclusive negotiating period with Vans, which has been working with the city to build, run and maintain a skate park. In January, the city entered into a six-month, with an additional optional three-month, exclusive negotiation period with VF Outdoor, Inc. to build a state-of-the-art skate park on 2.7 acres on Center Avenue near Gothard Street. Vans and the city are extending the negotiating period for another six months until March, because the environmental impact report, which was approved in April, is taking longer than expected, said Director of Economic Development Stanley Smalewitz.

Huntington Beach on Monday greenlighted a $350-million desalination plant that would have the capacity to produce 50 million gallons of fresh water a day. The City Council gave Poseidon Resources its final approvals to build a seawater desalination plant in the southeast section of Huntington Beach. The city approved the project's coastal development permits, owner participation agreement and a pipeline franchise agreement 5-0-2 with Mayor Pro-Tem Jill Hardy and Councilman Gil Coerper absent.