Vote Clears Way for Huntington Beach Wal-Mart

Neither signs, nor eloquent entreaties, nor even a cemetery director pleading for the eternal serenity of his charges could stop a majority of the Huntington Beach City Council from rezoning an old school site to make way for a Wal-Mart.

The 4-3 vote came in the wee hours Tuesday, after five hours of debate among angry neighbors, determined school officials and a scattering of Wal-Mart fans. City Council members then overturned their own planning commission and approved the rezoning necessary for development of the abandoned Crest View Elementary School.

The 13-acre site at Lisa Lane and Talbert Avenue has been in the middle of a tug-of-war for two years. And while the fight is not over, proponents have won the major battle with Tuesday’s vote.

Crest View United, a loosely organized group of the 600 homeowners who border the site, vowed Wednesday to keep up their effort to stop the project.

“We’re not going to lay down and die,” said Bob Cronk, a leader of the group. “We’re consulting with counsel and we’re looking at the referendum process. This was a betrayal of the people.”

But those council members who voted for it said the decision was meant to help all the people of the city, who need the $500,000 a year the retailer is expected to contribute in sales taxes.

“We have no money to fix the streets, no money to fix the sewers,” and the police officers and firefighters haven’t had significant raises in years, said Councilman Dave Garofalo, who voted for the project. “We are desperately trying to keep the quality of life for everybody at the highest level we can with sources other than direct taxation.”

Garofalo and the other council members who voted for the plan--Shirley S. Dettloff, Pam Julien and Ralph H. Bauer--also said that the needs of the Ocean View School District, which owns the land, played a big part in their decision.

School district officials closed the campus in 1992 because of declining enrollment. The $400,000 annual lease payment for Wal-Mart would be crucial to finance repair of aging buildings in the district, they said.

Both sides made powerful and persuasive arguments, said Councilman Tom Harman, who voted against the plan with Dave Sullivan and Peter M.Green.

There was the elderly woman who dragged an oxygen tank and said she wouldn’t be able to breathe with all the truck fumes. There was Kevin Haynes, superintendent of Good Shepherd Cemetery & Mausoleum on Talbert Avenue, who said the noise from the Wal-Mart would disrupt burial services and betray the dignity of loved ones buried there.

“This was the toughest decision I’ve had to make since I’ve been on the council,” Harman said. “I just felt like it was an unfair treatment of the local community. I thought it was a violation of trust the people had in us to protect the community.”

Wal-Mart, which has proposed a 130,000-square-foot, still has to go to the Planning Commission for a conditional-use permit, and no construction date has been set, city planners said. Tough restrictions to alleviate inconvenience to the neighborhood are likely. Either side can appeal that decision, but it’s unlikely to prevent the building crews from moving in.

“It’s been rezoned now,” Harman added. “It is a done deal.”