Debate should focus on Surf City of today

It has long sat empty, a dirt lot known as “31 acres.” To one side

looms the Hilton Waterfront Resort, to the other thrives Downtown

Huntington Beach.

At long last we have before us specific plans for Pacific City,

the project landowner and developer Makar Properties is proposing for

the site.

The design calls for two areas in Pacific City: 10.6 acres of

retail, office space and a hotel along Pacific Coast Highway and 17.2

residential acres.

The residential district would have condominiums and stacked

apartments, from one to four stories and from 850 to 2,425-square

feet in area.

The shopping area would have as much as 180,000 square feet of

retail space and 60,000 square feet of office space. It would offer

six specialty food outlets, restaurants, shops, a day spa and yoga

center, a live entertainment venue and services such as a dry

cleaner, video store and coffee house.

Those who are active in the city had previews of what was to come,

but it was the first time the elaborate plans have been laid out

before the public as a whole.

So now comes the test. When other large-scale development projects

have been proposed for the Downtown in the past, the knee-jerk

reaction of many in Surf City has been to criticize the projects,

saying that it will ruin the small surf town feel of Huntington

Beach. It was an argument used to fight the Hilton, the Hyatt Regency

Huntington Beach Resort & Spa and the Strand. But it is an argument

whose time has come and gone. That small surf town feel went the way

of the inexpensive surf bungalows. For better or worse Surf City has

grown into an expensive coastal surf town.

Debate and discussion surrounding this project should, rather, be

on such legitimate topics as parking, traffic, the need and demand

for such a development and other possible effects on the community.

City sources tell us Pacific Coast Highway will eventually have to be

expanded by two more lanes, removing parking. While that might ease

one problem, will it create another?

Another hotel and retail plaza, however, will certainly create

jobs and bring revenue to the city.

We hope that when the inevitable debate and discussion of the

project begins it will be based not on notions of a bygone era, but

legitimate cares and concerns and results in what is best for the

community as a whole.