HUNTINGTON BEACH : Pier Gateway Plaza Must Go to Voters

A gateway plaza planned at the foot of the new Municipal Pier will require voter approval before it can be built, according to a city attorney’s legal opinion announced this week.

The ruling issued by City Atty. Gail C. Hutton states that the pier plaza will require a citywide vote under the provisions of Measure C, a growth-limitation law voters approved last November. Earlier this year, Hutton determined that the new law forces a vote on the controversial Pierside Village restaurant proposal.

Measure C, a City Charter amendment, forbids the city to sell or lease park or beach land for new developments without voter approval.

A City Council majority on Tuesday called for separate elections on Pierside Village and the pier plaza. The council tentatively scheduled a special election Nov. 5 for the Pierside Village vote and agreed to include the pier plaza proposal on a statewide ballot, in either June or November of next year.

A special election on Pierside Village, expected to receive final council approval in July, would cost the city between $93,000 and $100,000, City Clerk Connie Brockway said.

“Even though it might be more costly, if we don’t separate the two issues, I think it would be total confusion” for voters, Councilwoman Linda Moulton-Patterson said.

City officials envision the pier plaza as a parklike entrance to the new pier, which is a key element of the city’s effort to spruce up its major visitors’ hub along Main Street.

Some elements of the plaza, such as a landscaped area linking the pier and Pacific Coast Highway, would not require a citywide vote, Assistant City Administrator Ray Silver said. A special election would be necessary only if plans include buildings, such as the proposed future home of the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, he said.

The council is scheduled this fall to approve specific plans for the pier plaza proposal. Its final design, however, will depend largely on the fate of Pierside Village, Silver said.

Pierside Village, which has sparked protests from residents since it was first unveiled five years ago, is a complex of restaurants proposed for construction on the parking lot just south of the pier. Critics say the project would block ocean views, while proponents contend it would attract more visitors to the beach and offer additional views from its plazas and promenades.

The pier plaza and Pierside Village proposals are among nearly $12 million in improvements the city has planned for the pier area. As proposed, the city Redevelopment Agency would spend as much as $3 million for the Pierside Village development, and the pier plaza would cost up to $1.65 million.

The city plans to pay for the improvements with redevelopment money, unallocated bond funds that had been earmarked for a now-abandoned parking garage project, parking revenue, capital project funds and a city water-fund loan, Silver said. The city would seek to recover the loan, estimated at $2.5 million, through private fund-raising efforts for the pier, he said.