Huntington Beach and Wal-Mart

* I want to thank the Huntington Beach City Council for the wonderful holiday gift they have given the Crestview neighborhood; or should I say, the Wal-Mart neighborhood? Wal-Mart neighborhood? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

Our neighborhood has been sold out for about one-tenth of 1% of the city’s budget in sales-tax revenue.

Unlike the $500,000 in annual sales-tax revenue mentioned in your Dec. 15 article, the city staff’s estimate is from $278,360 to $317,178--a far cry from half a million dollars.

This should serve as a warning to all neighborhoods in the city that, if the price is right, your quality of life will be sacrificed as well.

To add to injury, there are proposals to share about 22% of the sales-tax income with the school district and the developer.

This is estimated to reduce the income to the city by $80,000 to $90,000 per year. Why is there a proposal to kick back some of the sales tax revenue to the developer? To pay the developer back for the required traffic mitigation.

What a great example of corporate welfare, and what a great message to other developers. Come to Huntington Beach, impact a neighborhood with over 12,000 additional car trips per day, and we will pay you back for doing it.

CONNIE BOARDMAN

Huntington Beach