Navigation Ctr. Progress Hits A Speed Bump

Plans for Garden Grove – and partners Fountain Valley and Westminster –to establish a “navigation center” to house and assist the homeless have hit a bump in the road.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Garden Grove City Council is expected to reject all construction bids for the project and start the bid process over.

According to a staff report, two bids were received for the project, one for $4.8 million and another for $6.9 million. But “both bids have irregularities and may lead to protests.” City staff recommends rejecting both bids and re-advertising the project.

The proposed center is on a 0.41-acre site at 13871 West Street in an industrial area northwest of Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue. It would accommodate as many as 80 people.

Garden Grove will be the lead agency and will operate the center in combination with the cities of Fountain Valley and Westminster.

Getting the center built

n HUNTINGTON BEACH COUNCIL

• District 2 (Carlos Manzo): Don Anderson

• District 3: (Kimberly

Ho): Jamison Power

• District 4: (NamQuan

Nguyen): Tony Bui

• Mayor (Chi Charlie Nguyen): Alin Hamade. Planning commissions make decisions on zoning matters, requests for site plans, planned unit developments, requests for variances, etc.

Continued on page 8

The City of Huntington Beach’s ongoing tussle with the State of California over housing took a time-out this week.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the council, it was decided to table until the April 4 meeting a decision on whether to accept the state-mandated housing element update revision.

Three of the four conservative members of the council voted against the element update, but fell short of a majority when Councilmember Casey McKeon announced he would recuse himself from voting because of a potential conflict of interest.

A 3-3 tie is nevertheless not the majority needed for passage.

Continued on page 2

Huntington Beach City Council

Continued from page 1

At issue is the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which calls for Huntington Beach to zone for – but not necessarily build – 13,338 new homes over the next 10-year period as a way of alleviating the state’s housing shortage.

The council did vote 5-2 (with Councilmembers Gracey Van Der Mark and Pat Burns opposed) to continue to accept and process applications and permits for accessory dwelling units and SB 9 (allowing lot splits in single family zones), a reversal of an earlier decision to refuse to accept new applications.

All this happens against a backdrop of lawsuits by the city against the state, and the state against the city over housing requirements imposed by the California legislature.

The next meeting of the council is set for Tuesday, April 4.

n STANTON CITY COUNCIL

Should mayor’s post be subject to term limits?

Should the position of mayor of Stanton be subject to the same term limits as other members of the city council?

Councilmember Gary Taylor has raised that issue and it will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting of the council. David Shawver has been on the council since 1988 and served several terms as mayor, winning the office most recently in 2022 with no opposition.

In 2016, Stanton voters approved Measure RR, which limited council members to two

New cases of COVID-19 fall

As the month of March approaches its conclusion, two of the four major metrics on the coronavirus pandemic in Orange County show improvement, while two others are static.

According to the county health care agency, the latest report on March 23 shows 808 confirmed new cases. That compares to 1,314 reported on March 2. Hospitalizations dropped from 177 to 121.

However, deaths were unchanged at 21 and the number of persons being treated for coronavirus in intensive care units stayed the same at 19.

To date, OC has had 715, 259 cases of coronavirus, and 8,009 deaths.

Garden Grove City Council

Continued from page 1 and up and running is a priority for all three cities as anticamping ordinances can only be enforced if there’s a place for the unhoused to be sheltered. terms. The margin was 75.24 percent “yes” to 24.76 percent “no.”

The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Meeting Center, 11300 Stanford Ave.

Also on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting is a discussion on the city’s current district-based election systems as requested by Shawver.

For most of the city’s history, council members were elected at large, but since 2018 that system was replaced with a district setup, in which council members are chosen by voters in each of four districts with the mayor elected by voters citywide.

The council will meet in its chambers at City Hall at 7800 Katella Ave. at 6:30 p.m.

JIm Tortolano Editor and Publisher Marilyn Lewis Tortolano General Manager

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