Bella Terra battle

The Huntington Beach Planning Commission voted Tuesday night to approve the second complex of apartments and retail near the Bella Terra shopping center in one month.

On a 6-1 vote, with only Commissioner Joe Shaw voting no, the commission approved plans for the Village at Bella Terra, a six-story complex with more than 700 apartments above new retailers meant to mesh with the original Bella Terra. On staff recommendation, the commission voted to allow significantly greater density and higher buildings than normal city guidelines.

The vote followed four and a half hours of discussion and ran nearly to midnight, following an attempt by Chairman Tom Livengood to cut it off and finish the session off next week.

“We’ve got the biggest project this planning commission has ever been involved in, and I am not really pleased that we’re doing it at 11:20 at night,” he said, before commissioners voted 4-3 against him to keep going.

Residents weren’t all supportive of the final vote, especially because a similar project, the Ripcurl development, had been approved by the commission in the same area just weeks before. The Ripcurl would put more retail and apartments into a six-story project about a block to the west. And further high-density projects are suggested in the area in a study of Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue that will be released next week, officials said.

Opponents have complained that the higher density between the mall and Golden West College would clog streets with traffic, increase crime and worsen air quality.

While calling the design “beautiful” and saying mixed-use projects were a good fit for the area, Huntington Beach Tomorrow representative Monica Hamilton said the proposal needed to be cut down to size.

“The cumulative impact is these are too dense for the Huntington Beach community,” she said. “Residents should not be impacted by this for the rest of their lives.”

But the city’s transportation manager, Bob Stachelski, said the project wouldn’t cause as much of a traffic problem as some people feared. There will be more people taking the Beach Boulevard exit from the 405 Freeway, and the increase of traffic at Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue will call for some changes at the intersection, but surface streets past there won’t see much change, he said.

“Studies we’ve done show it’s really not a capacity issue at any individual intersection along Edinger,” he said. “Trying to coordinate them is the biggest challenge. You probably will not see significant increase in the amount of time it takes to get through the system.”

The project did shrink a little, with the agreement of developer DJM President Lindsay Parton — originally, plans allowed for 10 stories near the 405 Freeway, but Parton agreed that he could fit the full project in six. Commissioners also required that at least one building meet green building standards to make up for the worsened air quality from extra car trips. They also rejected an option to allow a hotel in the area.

Parton called the project a “catalyst for the revival of this part of the city.”

Both the Village and the Ripcurl are scheduled to go before the City Council for final approval in November.