Commission tells diocese to scale back

The Planning Commission asked officials with the Roman Catholic

Diocese of Orange to tone down plans to expand the Good Shepard

Cemetery at the corner of Beach Boulevard and Talbert Avenue.

The church was hoping to launch an expansion of the 23-acre

cemetery, including construction of an 85,000-square-foot mausoleum

and several new garden crypts to border the rear of the property.

Instead, the Planning Commission sent the project back to the

drawing board, asking the church to either scale down the proposed

50-foot mausoleum or hide it with landscaping.

“The height of the mausoleum was a major issue,” senior Planner

Paul Da Viega said.

Several residents living along Newland Avenue, which also borders

the cemetery, have expressed concern that the proposed 20-foot garden

crypts and a rear six-foot wall will create an alley in front of

their homes that will be ugly and ultimately create a security

hazard. Only a chain link fence separates Newland Avenue from the

cemetery.

“As Johnny Cash would say, they’re going to have the Folsom Prison

Blues,” said resident local resident Ron Cooper.

The diocese has until Dec. 7 to change the design of the project.

Da Viega said he doesn’t expect the church to budge very much.

“They haven’t really been responding to our comments,” he said.

“They’ve proposed this design since the beginning.”

Free holiday parking goes before the council

Holiday shoppers won’t find the tradition free meter parking

Downtown for the second year in a row, but the Downtown Business

Assn. is asking the City Council for a compromise.

At the request of business owners, the council on Monday will

consider offering one hour of free parking in the 200 Main St.

Promenade Parking Structure from Dec 13. to Jan 5 .

The proposal is a marketing plan to get more shoppers in the

Downtown area during the Christmas season.

Traditionally, Downtown businesses have lost out on holiday sales

tax revenue to out-of-town shopping centers with free parking,

merchants say.

“We wanted to give locals a reason to come down and shop,” said

Steve Daniel of the Downtown Business Assn.

In years past, parking officials simply put bags over the parking

meters and let shoppers park for free. Last year, city officials said

that with the budget crunch, they could not afford to offer free

parking.

Another problem was that people would leave their cars there all

day and make it difficult for others to simply exit their vehicles

and briefly shop, Daniel said.

The city didn’t bag the meters last holiday season, and grossed

about $24,000 in parking fees, Daniel said.

The new plan would have merchants handing out parking coupons to

customers that would grant them a free hour of parking when they went

to pay at the parking garage.

Target store to close during remodel

The very popular Target store on Adams Avenue will temporarily

close on Jan. 8 for a major remodel of the property.

The retail facility will reopen in October 2005

Employees from the store will be offered transfers to surrounding

Target stores while the new store is under construction. Target

officials said they hope to re-employ the approximately 180 employees

at the existing store.

While the new store is under construction, shoppers are being

redirected to the 16400 Beach Blvd. center in Westminster, the 3300

S. Bristol St. location in Santa Ana and 3030 Harbor Blvd. in Costa

Mesa.

Holiday gifts purchased at the Huntington Beach store can be

returned with an original receipt at any Target store within 90 days

of purchase.