Jury Awards $4.8 Million to Pierside Village Developer : Courts: Panel cites a breach of contract for project by Huntington Beach and its redevelopment agency. City will likely seek a new trial or appeal, official says.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  An Orange County Superior Court jury this week awarded $4.8 million in damages to developer Stanley M. Bloom, saying the city and its redevelopment agency breached a 1986 contract with Bloom to develop the Pierside Village project next to the municipal pier.

City Atty. Gail C. Hutton, who announced the jury award Friday, said the City Council will meet in closed session Monday to consider its legal options.

“There is little doubt that the City Council will be strongly considering a motion for a new trial and if not granted, an appeal of the verdict rendered,” Hutton said.

If it stands, city officials said, Wednesday’s jury award would appear to pose a major financial blow to the city, which recently made spending cuts in most departments and raised a number of fees to meet budget shortfalls.

“With our budgetary problems, the loss of $4.8 million would be a major hit,” Councilman David Sullivan said.

In 1991, the City Council voted 4 to 3 to rescind the lease for the Pierside Village project after debate raged for five years. Critics claimed that the proposal to build up to five restaurants and other shops on 3 1/2 acres of city-owned beachfront property next to the pier would be a visual blight. They also said that the restaurant complex would hamper public access to the beach.

Supporters, however, said that the restaurants would be an asset to downtown development.

Councilman Jim Silva, who had earlier supported the complex “with reservations,” cast the decisive vote to kill the project.

Silva said Friday that he changed his mind and voted against the project because he believed that it was a property rights issue. The land is owned by the city, and residents were overwhelmingly against the project. “Property rights prevailed,” he said.

In 1990, city voters overwhelmingly approved Measure C, which prohibits the city from selling or leasing beach or park land without a citywide vote.

Approval of Measure C prompted the City Council in 1991 to reconsider its support of Pierside Village and the subsequent vote to kill it.