HUNTINGTON BEACH : Improvements for Downtown Sought

Dozens of downtown merchants are rallying to demand that the city carve a slice from $10 million in unspent bond money to make what they say are promised improvements for the area.

The business owners say that city officials have implicitly agreed to allocate more than $1 million of the bond revenue surplus to improve streets, lighting and landscaping throughout the business district. Merchants are also pushing for a proposed $2.3-million plaza to be built at the foot of the pier.

The city issued $10 million in bonds for a parking structure that had been planned north of the Municipal Pier. Earlier this year, however, the City Council canceled the parking project, freeing the bond money for other uses.

City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga has recommended that half of the unused money go to three beach parking projects and the other half to expansion of the Central Library.

The merchants are arguing that some of the money should be used to finish the redevelopment of downtown, which for years has been the site of demolition, construction and street closures.

“We feel like (city officials) have made a commitment to us, and we’d like to hold them to that commitment,” said Nancy Wylie, who along with her husband, Steve, owns a Main Street yogurt shop.

“It’s not that we don’t appreciate what’s been done so far downtown, because a lot of positive things have been done. But you just don’t stop in the middle. It’s like making a shirt and not putting the buttons on it,” she said.

Uberuaga said he is still recommending the downtown improvements but with other funding sources.

Uberuaga said he is recommending that the council draw more than $1 million from a land-sale revenue account and that city park-improvement funds be used to help pay for the Pier Plaza. The plaza, however, must first be approved by voters under a city law that requires a vote on certain beach and parkland developments.

“The merchants are concerned that these things will not be funded,” Uberuaga said. “It is not our intent to not do these projects, but we plan to use a combination of revenue sources.”

But the merchants said the bond money should be used for the improvements so that they can be completed as soon as possible. Nearly all businesses downtown have struggled in recent years, which merchants blame on continuing development, the reconstruction of the landmark pier and other factors, such as poor summer weather and last year’s massive oil spill.

“It’s been a rough time for the merchants,” Wylie said. “If the city would just complete the pier and get the improvements finished downtown . . . we could operate our businesses and make a living.”

Uberuaga said he recommended that the bond money only go toward projects that generate revenue--mainly from parking meters--to help pay back the remaining 28-year debt. So he has proposed that the downtown improvements be supported through other means.

But Wylie contends that the downtown projects will make money for the city because an improved business area will mean more tax revenue.

“If they believe in downtown and believe it can work, as we all do, we feel as merchants that we can generate more revenue than parking meters,” she said. “If we can’t, there’s no reason for any of us to have a business downtown.”