Observations from 2006 Huntington Beach Economic Outlook Conference –
City of Huntington Beach Road to Success
By Victoria Alberty
Owner: www.thelocalhb.com
December 4, 2006
What’s in Store for Huntington Beach, CA…
I had the pleasure of attending the 2006 Economic Outlook for the City of Huntington Beach and I walked out of the Conference feeling good about my city!
I own the website for HB locals: www.thelocalhb.com and as a site that promotes our sense of community, I liked what I heard from the speakers in terms of where we are going.
As a community, we have the vision statement for the future: “Huntington Beach: An engaged sustainable, family friendly community that is safe, vibrant and attractive to tourists, residents and businesses alike”. No wonder folks want to live here! We currently have a population of over 200,000 which is expected to rise to 230,000 by the year 2020. With that, employment will increase but that also means more of a demand for affordable housing. There is a demand for mixed-use and higher-density residential near transportation corridors. Sadly, the one thing Huntington Beach does lack is affordable, available housing with no end to inflation in site.
We also have an aging population with a 64% growth of the 60-and-over group in the next 15 years! The good news is that improvements are coming to handle this segmented growth.
We now have more money to spend for transportation: to rehab roadways (we already see this on many streets around town), implementing intelligent traffic signals and the possibility of making use of the existing railway running through town.
Huntington Beach is also promoting the “Go Local” initiative knowing that more and more people are choosing to stay closer to home for their daily activities (It takes longer and longer to drive anywhere these days).
The improvements for downtown are exactly what is needed… Permanent Pier buildings, a visitor kiosk, bluff top improvements, improved street lights, additional street cleaning and graffiti removal, ‘Downtown Tuesdays’, and street fairs. All of these are much-needed additions that will bring the locals back into our downtown area!
We have all seen the construction on either side of downtown. In our near future is the addition of two new areas: Pacific City & The Strand. Pacific City (directly across from the Waterfront Hilton) will be a mixed-use development with 516 condos, 165 room boutique hotel and 191,000 square feet of retail, spa, and restaurant space. As for a time line, the construction of a commercial parking structure will begin in March 2007 with an estimated completion in December 2007 (I’m sure we’re all happy to see more parking downtown!).
The first phase of residential construction begins in April 2007 with plans of 136 units completed by Spring 2008. The retail area is scheduled to be completed by Fall 2008 and the hotel in Spring 2009. As well, there will be a Senior Center completed in 2009.
As for The Strand (West side of downtown Main), plans are for 100,000 square feet of restaurant, office & retail and a 157 boutique hotel by ‘Joie de Vivre’ (largest boutique hotel operator in the state and second in the nation!). There will be a subterranean parking garage of two levels (you can see them working on that now) to be completed in January 2007. Next will be the grade level buildings. Hotel and retail are hoping to open by March 2008.
We all see what a success ‘Bella Terra’ is becoming! Complete with 772,000 square feet of retail space, it has also become the new teen hot spot! In early 2007 concepts will be aired regarding the use of the yet to be developed section (Montgomery Ward former site). A mixed-use project is also proposed.
As for improvements that still need to happen, the Edinger/Beach corridor is being addressed for revitalization. The initial planning study should be completed by 2006 year end with the complete land use plan ready by July 2007.
Baby Boomers… Many of us fall into that category and in itself, that population segment drastically affects our city. We are in a work force crisis with the public sector expected to lose 40 – 50% of the workforce within five years. With so much of our population aging and leaving the workforce, we are challenged in finding replacements due to housing prices, commuting time, benefits and wages.
Our young people entering the workforce cannot afford to live here and are going elsewhere, leaving us with a significant loss in organizational knowledge and experience. There are challenges ahead but the city is working on tackling them. New construction remains strong for the next 3-4 years. As well, more people are spending on residential additions & remodels as there is less available space.
What are our indicators of success? A positive fund balance with revenues to meet citizen and business needs; customer satisfaction; growth in property, sales and transient occupancy tax levels; an engaged community; a healthy business community including more business starts, high retention, development…. (Just to name a few…)
More positives include city initiatives to include document imaging; wireless access throughout the city; GIS map-based access; public kiosk to access city services; as well as Mashups and better search engines for library patrons.
Huntington Beach announced a new service on their site (www.surfcity-hb.org) called ‘MY HB’. You type in your address and can get information for your area including school district info & contacts, street sweeping, trash pickup, emergency response center, voting, and flood zone info.
Our city website now receives 200,000 visits per month and a revamping of the site is in process. One quarter of a million people visit here from over the O.C. border yearly with $93.6 million in earning from tourism. Our city is on a campaign to increase tourist awareness of Huntington Beach.
The number one place that visitors come from? Phoenix! Followed by LA County and Las Vegas.
What do people want when the visit here? The most common response is the have package deals with area attractions. For residents, when you have out of town visitors, the most popular things we take them to (in order): The Pier (no surprises there), Downtown, City Beach, State Beach, 5 Points Shopping, Bolsa Chica State Beach, and Dog Beach.
As for out-of-season things to do, shopping is number 1; followed by beach bonfires. Off-season attractions include the beach, The Pier, Huntington Harbor, and cultural events.
Predictions for the future: In the next 40-years, our country is going to add more than 1/3 to our population. As traffic congestion worsens, people may tend to go back to the “village” frame of mind. We already see signs of it as shopping on local streets increases instead of driving distances to “malls”.
Increasing in popularity are the farmer’s markets and unique shopping opportunities. People LIKE the sense of community. They want to walk the streets and bump into people they know. This is changing the way we feel about our cities. “People do not live together to merely be together. They live together to do something together” (a quote by our Keynote speaker, Joel Kotkin – International authority on global, economic, political and social trends).
Overall, there is great enthusiasm as to where Huntington Beach is going and I’m excited to be part of it. More importantly, I LOVE being an HB local! As the Penny Culbreth, the City Administrator, stated: “Smooth Sailing ahead. Weather is fine. Skies are blue. We’ve set our course. Ready to take advantage of the Changing Tides”.
Victoria operates the website for Huntington Beach locals: www.thelocalhb.com. A website with recommendations made by locals for locals and folks planning on visiting Huntington Beach, including things to do, where to eat & drink, places to go, things to buy, calendar of events as well as general info about Huntington Beach.
