City spares homes

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The Peck family breathed a collective sigh of relief

after the City Council last week decided to spare its white Victorian

home from the threat of eminent domain.

“It was a great victory for us,” Ralph Peck said.

Joining in the celebration were owners and residents of 30 other homes

and apartments near Pacific Coast Highway between 1st and 2nd streets,

the area excluded from the city’s redevelopment plans by the council’s

4-0 vote Sept. 20.

To avoid potential conflicts of interest, Council members Ralph Bauer,

Dave Garofalo and Pam Julien abstained because they own property near

that area.

The power of eminent domain over residential property, which expired by

law in 1994, would give the city authority to purchase homes by force for

the purpose of redevelopment. To justify reinstating the power, the city

ruled that the area included “substandard” or “blighted” homes.

The Peck family, which has owned the house on 114 Pacific Coast Highway

since 1952, took offense.

“It makes you feel like a slumlord,” said Ralph Peck’s sister, Louise

Fiorillo. “Being an old property doesn’t mean it’s blighted.”

Peck admitted the home does need some work, but it will be taken care of,

he said. “We’re going to be painting the house very soon now that we

know we’re going to be here longer.”

Although only occasionally occupied by the family, the Victorian is

filled with memories, Fiorillo said. “I could remember my grandfather

sitting by the kitchen watching my brother and I walking along PCH.”

As teenagers in the late 1960s, they played on the beach across the

street and when the time came to return home, her grandmother would hang

a red bath towel on the porch, she recalled.

In those days, Huntington Beach felt proud of its folksy charm with

quaint shops, restaurants and cottages along the coast, she said. “It’s

sad to see what development has taken away,” she said. “Our house kind

of stands as a landmark of what used to be.”

City Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff said the council didn’t plan to take

away anybody’s home. “It was never our intent.”

All along, the push for redevelopment focused on the 400 and 500 blocks

of Pacific Coast Highway, where about 10 residential rental units that

are “not adequate” exist, she said.

These units are part of commercial properties, over which the city

already holds eminent domain power.

The council, which approved a multimillion-dollar hotel, restaurant and

retail project at the site, will likely formally adopt eminent domain at

its meeting Oct. 18.

Peck said the city’s continued effort to take away people’s property

makes his victory bittersweet.

“This war’s not over yet,” he said. “We’re continuing to fight for our

neighbors’ rights. We’re not backing off.”