The Furuta bungalow, lined with a beautifully trimmed hedgerow, August 2001. (Photo courtesy of the Furuta family)
*NEW* Tentative City Council hearing: October 7.
UPDATE AUGUST 26:
On August 13, the Huntington
Beach Planning Commission voted 4 -3 to certify the draft Environmental
Impact Report (EIR). The Commission then voted 5 - 2 to approve the General
Plan Amendment and Zoning Map Amendment (ZMA, re-zoning) of Historic
Wintersburg property to commercial / industrial.
The
Planning Commission denied, 4 - 3, the Statement of Overriding
Consideration (the action that would allow demolition).
The actions were subject to a ten-day appeal period. As of
last week, all three actions were appealed.
The Ocean View
School District appealed the certification of the EIR and the action to
rezone the property, due to their concern about increasing industrial uses
adjacent to the Oak View Elementary School.
Ocean View Grammar School, circa 1926, included some of Huntington Beach's founding families. In this photograph are Frank McIntosh (#7), Harley Asari (#10)--the son of Wintersburg goldfish farmer Tsurumatsu "T.M." Asari--Juanita Gothard (#5), Sumi Akiyama (#25)--daughter of Wintersburg goldfish farmers Henry and Masuko Akiyama--Toshiko Furuta (#31), and Lily Kikuchi (#33). Children walked through the farmland to go to school every day. (Photo courtesy of Douglas McIntosh)
The original Ocean View Grammar School was located at the southwest corner of Stanton (Beach) Boulevard and Wintersburg (Warner) Avenue, and the children of the former Wintersburg Village attended the school. The present-day Oak View Elementary School is immediately adjacent to the south end of the Furuta farm across Belsito Drive.
Oak View Elementary School is located just south of Belsito Drive, at the bottom of this aerial photograph from the Warner-Nichols project draft Environmental Impact Report.
Portion of letter submitted
on behalf of Ocean View School District at the August 13, 2013, Huntington
Beach Planning Commission. (Click on image to enlarge.)
As of Friday,
August 23, 2013, the action on the Statement of Overriding Consideration
(SOC) was appealed by City Councilman Matt Harper.
Excerpt from interoffice
memorandum appealing the Statement of Overriding Consideration by Councilman
Matt Harper.
Summary
These actions mean
the entirety of the EIR package, including the GPA, ZMA and SOC (including the
proposal for demolition) will go before the Huntington Beach City Council
for review. Issues such as re-zoning impacts, analysis of project alternatives and justification of demolition will be reviewed again.
The current information from City staff is that this meeting
may be held in October (*New* tentatively Monday, October 7). Continued support
for the preservation of Historic Wintersburg will be needed.
More information regarding the upcoming City Council review will
be posted as available.
WATCH: the full Planning Commission meeting on the Historic
Wintersburg Youtube Channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/HistoricWintersburg/feed?filter=2
Thank you again to all the supporters who came forward to
speak. We will continue our effort to save Historic Wintersburg!
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The Historic Wintersburg blog focuses on an overlooked history in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California, in the interest of saving a historic property from demolition. The author and publisher reserves the right not to publish comments. Please no promotional or political commentary. Zero tolerance for hate rhetoric. Comments with embedded commercial / advertising links or promoting other projects, books, or publications may not be published. If you have an interesting anecdote, question or comment about one of our features, it will be published.