A 29-acre hotel and housing development in southeast Huntington Beach won approval Wednesday from the California Coastal Commission.
Shopoff Realty Investments owns the land of the former Magnolia Tank Farm – the name comes from the oil storage tanks that once stood there – and the company wants to build 250 homes, a hotel and park space.
Bill Shopoff, CEO of Shopoff Realty, said after the meeting that they are thrilled it won approval.
“We are dedicated to seeing this project come to fruition and be a bright spot for Huntington Beach, instead of the blight it has historically been on this stretch of the coastline,” Shopoff said in a statement.
The approval is one year after the commission punted on deciding whether to move the project forward. At that meeting, the commissioners wanted more time to examine risks at the site, including whether future sea level rise might be a danger for the property that’s within sight of the beach.
The Magnolia Tank Farm development, for years, has drawn concerns from neighboring residents and environmental activists who see the site 2,000 feet from the shoreline and in a low-lying area as too risky to build on. Flood walls near the area were recently improved, but, according to a consultant study submitted on the flooding potential, risk remains in future decades should a major storm surge event hit the area combined with several feet of sea level rise.
Besides once housing oil storage tanks, adjacent to the site is the former Ascon Landfill, which until 1984 received industrial waste and now is currently in the process of being remediated.
Twenty percent of the homes will be affordable rental units, with half set aside to be offered to income-qualified workers at the planned hotel on a right-of-first-refusal basis. Before the Magnolia Tank Farm hotel is built, the rentals will be offered to other hotel workers in the city.
Shopoff said during the meeting that the affordable housing set aside for workers, “sets a strong precedent and hopefully others will follow it.”
The earliest homes could be finished construction is 2027, he said.
The 215-room hotel with 25% of its rooms offered at affordable rates would finish construction shortly after that. If built today, those affordable hotel rooms would rent for around $150 a night, according to a staff report from the Coastal Commission.
Several local environmental groups spoke against the project, raising concerns about the development being too close to the Ascon landfill and flooding worries. The groups emphasized they aren’t against development, especially for affordable housing, but the Magnolia Tank Farm site has too many risks.
Charming Evelyn, with the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, speaking to the commission, said the group can’t support a project that could put people in harm’s way.
Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, said no housing should be built at the Magnolia Tank Farm site until Ascon is fully remediated.
Huntington Beach City Councilmember Casey McKeon lives in southeast Huntington Beach and raised similar concerns, as well about flooding in the area.
Mauricio Escobar, a consultant for the project and geologist, told the commissioners that contaminated topsoil at the site has been removed over the past few years. Soil and groundwater testing shows it’s safe for development.
“The site itself is clean,” Escobar said.
A DTSC official speaking at the meeting said the Ascon landfill is not releasing containments outside of its boundaries. Remediation is expected to take until 2026.
Jeremy Smith, a Coastal Commission engineer, said contaminated groundwater at the Ascon landfill is contained and wouldn’t become an issue with sea level rise. He added that staff did not find any evidence that suggested containing groundwater would begin moving toward the development with sea level rise.
Unite Here Local 11, a large labor union representing service workers in Southern California, pushed for the project to get approval. Its members speaking during public comment said the project would give them the opportunity to live where they work and not have to take long commutes.
The City Council approved the project in 2021. The city requested the Coastal Commission to approve its application to rezone the site to allow homes.
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