Main St. group to meet

An ad-hoc committee set up to oversee Main Street closure to traffic will meet for the first time June 22 after being unanimously approved by the City Council recently.

The committee is looking at closing about three blocks of Main Street near Pacific Coast Highway to traffic, with a tentative Labor Day weekend date.

The economic development director is proposing to divide the committee into several work groups or subcommittees that will look at issues related to Main Street closure. The work groups will also come up with a cost analysis for issues such as street maintenance, parking and public art.

The committee is set to hold weekly meetings on Thursday mornings at City Hall on Main Street.

Although the committee is fairly large, with 20 or more members, business owners on Main Street who oppose the street closure and city staff say they are optimistic it’ll work.

“I know there are a bunch of issues that we will be looking at intensely, and the ad-hoc committee is going to do that precisely,” said Economic Development Director Stanley Smalewitz.

The committee will include Mayor Dave Sullivan; Councilman Gil Coerper; Councilwoman Jill Hardy; about eight downtown business members; about fourhomeowners or downtown residents; and city staff, comprising economic development, fire department and police officials.

“All we need to do is find the goal and objective, and go from there,” said Stephen Daniel, president of the Downtown Huntington Beach Business Assn., about working with a large committee.

Smalewitz argues that the city has presented its goals several times ? to take downtown to the level of the Strand and Pacific City projects, especially with the city’s focus on tourism.

“The downtown is not exempt from evolution,” he said.

“We might not have the stores of South Coast Plaza or Fashion Island, but they can’t beat our environment,” Smalewitz added.

Getting more visitors to the downtown area in the off-season is another driving motivation behind closing Main Street, said Nova Punongbayan, economic development staff member.

But putting up two barrels on Main Street to stop traffic will not create a walking promenade, he said.

“It’s a very delicate situation,” Daniel said. “You certainly don’t want to take a very successful street and be hurting it more than helping it.”

The downtown business district is hitting back with articles in its self-published newsletter “Downtown Dispatch,” asking for more time and a study before converting Main Street into a pedestrian mall.

The article goes on to say that Sullivan has made closing Main Street one of his priorities in an election year. He will be up for re-election in November City Council elections.

Sullivan said numerous e-mails and calls of support have convinced him that residents want Main Street to be a pedestrian mall.

“I have been pushing this for 10 years ? that’s a red herring on their part,” he said.

The City Council has twice discussed proposals ? in 2001 and 2004 ? to close Main Street to traffic. In 2004, following opposition from business owners, the council backed out of a plan to close the street.

Other cities, such as Dana Point and Laguna Beach, are moving toward creating more pedestrian-friendly downtowns.

Dana Point appointed a 14-member subcommittee to develop a town center plan. The committee gave its recommendations recently to make Dana Point’s nascent downtown attractive to pedestrians by reducing traffic but not cutting off access.

Huntington Beach has an established retail area, while Dana Point has an underutilized downtown area, said Brenda Chase, Dana Point senior city planner.

The Dana Point subcommittee studied revitalizing its downtown for a year and also recommended changing its land-use zoning to accommodate mixed-use and retail development.

Huntington Beach’s Daniel said the two couldn’t be compared, as “their downtown is not nearly as successful as ours.”

“At the end of the day, I’m sure we’ll come up with some great concepts and great ideas,” Smalewitz said. hbi.15-mainstreet-CPhotoInfoIU1RUJN320060615izfbeencMARK DUSTIN/INDEPENDENT(LA)Stanley Smalewitz, Huntington Beach economic development director, introduced a pilot project to close Main Street from traffic and turn it into a pedestrian mall.