Pierside Village Proposal Debuts : Development: Plans for a cluster of restaurants and shops are presented at a Huntington Beach council study session. They received a mixed response.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  The city’s proposed Pierside Village project made its debut in drawings and video before the City Council Monday to a mixed reaction.

As proposed, the project would be a cluster of restaurants at Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway. The development has become controversial in recent weeks as state agencies and local conservation groups have announced their opposition. The site for it is on beachfront property now held by the city as a public right-of-way.

The council on Monday saw working drawings and heard the developer, Jonathan Chodos, explain how it would be built. Council members emphasized that they were getting information only and that the project would be the subject of full debate, in which members of the public can participate, at the Jan. 8 council meeting.

Many conservationists nevertheless expressed their wrath.

Doug Langevin, who lives in Huntington Beach, bitterly criticized the council for what he called “the secrecy wrapped around Pierside Village.” Langevin said the council should not be viewing the development proposal during its afternoon work session but rather should have scheduled that for the regular 7 p.m. meeting, when more residents could have seen it on cable television.

Debbie Cook, chairwoman of Save Our Parks, also urged that the council not take up the matter during a study session.

Councilman Don MacAllister responded that the council used the afternoon session strictly for information and that it planned to take no action.

Chodos, a West Los Angeles developer, presented colored drawings of the complex and a color video that outlines details of the project. He said the complex will include a new version of the Maxwell’s Restaurant now on the pier along with two other restaurants in a plazalike area of flower shops and fountains--all suggesting a Mediterranean village.

Residents in the audience, however, hissed, and some called: “Where’s the beach? What happened to the beach?”

Resident Larry Geisse told the council that he strongly opposes Pierside Village, although, he said, the video “looked pretty good.” But, he added, “it looked good in the way John Wayne movies made World War II look good.”

Pierside Village came under attack earlier this year by both the State Lands Commission and the state attorney general’s office. According to Deputy Atty. Gen. Mary Gray Holt, the state opposed plans for private construction of restaurants in the beach area because the state has a constitutional responsibility to protect public beaches.

On another matter related to parks and public land, the City Council voted 4 to 2 to increase the fees charged to residential developers to buy and develop parkland.

The fees, first adopted in 1982, had been $2,395 per single-family unit and $1,662 per multiple-family unit. The city staff proposed raising the fees to $3,120 and $2,164, respectively.

Opponents of the fee increase said it would hurt home buyers, because the charge would be passed on to them. Supporters said a fee increase is badly needed because land prices have soared and the city needs more money to buy parkland and to develop unimproved parks.

Councilman Wes Bannister said he opposed raising the fees as much as the staff suggested “because it would make us the third highest in Orange County--right behind Irvine and Newport Beach.” Bannister also said he thought the city’s longtime policy of having five acres of parkland per 1,000 residents might be outdated, comparable to “having champagne taste on a beer budget.”

In a sharp rebuttal, Councilwoman Grace Winchell said the high park standards in Huntington Beach “are one of the reasons people come to live here . . . . We should not lower our standards.”