Huntington Beach, Calif., Approves 29-Acre Mixed-Use Project

A revised plan for a long-gestating, if controversial, 29-acre mixed-use community from Shopoff Realty Investments has the green light in the wealthy coastal enclave of Huntington Beach, Calif.

The Huntington Beach City Council voted unanimously to approve the master-planned project, dubbed Magnolia Tank Farm, located along Magnolia Street and near the Pacific Coast Highway. Plans for the development include roughly 200 single-family attached and detached homes, a 50-unit affordable multifamily complex, a 215-key hotel and 19,000 square feet of retail space. Shopoff intends to break ground on the project in mid- to late 2025.

Formerly an industrial site for oil storage tanks, hence the name, the development has been in the works since at least 2016, when Shopoff purchased the site. The tanks were demolished the following year, and the city’s planning commission approved a version of the project in late 2019. The City Council approved zoning changes for the project in 2021. The California Coastal Commission, which regulates development in the state’s coastal zones, approved the zoning and land use changes in July after punting its decision on the project last year. 

Yet the project is not without controversy. Some local environmental and community groups say the site is not suitable for such a large development, arguing that the property regularly floods, is adjacent to the Ascon landfill (which ceased operation in the mid 1980s) and sits atop an earthquake fault. 

Authorities have attempted to clean up the Ascon site for several years, yet efforts were paused in 2019 following complaints from locals about odors from the site and that some had suffered adverse health effects. The cleanup resumed in 2021, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times. But a July open letter to the California Coastal Commission urging denial of the project, from the California Coastal Protection Network, the Surfrider Foundation, the Orange County Coastkeeper and the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, claimed that the site was “un-remediated.” Shopoff disputes the claims. 

“The property in question is located adjacent to a landfill site that is currently being remediated with a closure plan approved by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control,” Bill Shopoff, Shopoff Realty president and CEO, told Commercial Observer in a statement. “There has been no migration from that site to Magnolia Tank Farms, which Shopoff continues to test and monitor. And while the property was built in a basin to accommodate the oil tanks that it formerly housed, it is not flood prone. Shopoff is raising the elevation of the site for the planned development, which would obviously further mitigate any potential flooding, as will a regional drainage facility that is also being included.”

Aside from the Magnolia Tank Farm project, Huntington Beach is notoriously unfriendly to development, engaging in a years-long legal battle with the Newsom Administration over the city’s rejection of state housing laws. In May, a San Diego Superior Court judge ruled that the city had indeed violated the state’s Housing Element Law and that it had 120 days to establish a plan to allow developers to build more housing there. Sept. 12 was the deadline for the city to comply, though according to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, Huntington Beach is still currently out of compliance.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.