Huntington Beach could halt development on Beach Boulevard

Huntington Beach could halt any future development along Beach Boulevard, its busiest thoroughfare.

After much shouting, the City Council voted 4-3 to consider killing a decade-old plan to help fast-track development of hundreds of acres along Beach Boulevard, the Voice of OC reported.

The council chose to study whether to scrap its Beach-Edinger Corridor Specific Plan, which includes an environmental study for nearly 460 acres designed to help fast track development by doing a basic review of the impacts on the street. The plan would decertify the study.

Councilman Casey McKeon, who proposed decertifying the report, said the original plan is too outdated to keep up with state housing mandates – that there needs to be a fresh look at the environmental impacts of development. 

But critics, including the Orange County Business Council and the Huntington Beach Auto Dealers, said any attempt to change the plan could hurt business development.

Councilmembers Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton, the dissenting votes, lambasted McKeon’s proposal. They also questioned if it was simply a move to kill all housing development along the street. 

“Say it. Say we don’t want to build housing on Beach Boulevard — because that allows staff to build public policy around that goal,” Kalmick said. “This doesn’t make any sense, this is not a serious policy goal and you guys aren’t serious people.

“This sets a weird precedent.” 

The Kennedy Commission, a nonprofit advocate for more affordable housing in Orange County, said it would make it harder to build housing, and requested the city “not continue to undermine affordable housing planning.”  

The study comes during a legal battle between Surf City and state leaders over California’s housing development mandates.

While Gov. Gavin Newsom and others argue Huntington Beach is trying to end development, a City Council majority led by Mayor Tony Strickland says the mandates destroy local zoning. 

Ursula Luna-Reynolds, the city’s community development director, said she couldn’t find any precedent for repealing an environmental impact report after a project was built, and said it could discourage businesses or developers looking to work in the area. 

She added that the city would have to evaluate every project that comes in to determine what environmental reviews were needed, and that the city would lose its ability to coordinate mitigation across multiple projects. 

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