Readers Respond

The issue: The City Council has considered using eminent domain in

Downtown area to secure property for a commercial development project.

Speaking as one of the nearly 200,000 “others” in Huntington Beach who is

not in the eminent domain area, I’d like to say that I am totally against

the use of eminent domain.

Buying property is a freedom, and forcing someone to sell that property

is denying that freedom, apparently something the current City Council

doesn’t understand. Or if they do, they are trying to take away that

freedom.

I can understand the use of eminent domain if a freeway is going through

a few states, and there is a farm blocking that freeway, stopping

something good for the entire country. I do not, however, condone eminent

domain to force people out of their homes in order to promote the

“private gain” of others.

Shirley Dettloff mentioned something about wanting to have Downtown

become a place for all of the nearly 200,000 people to come and enjoy.

Well, they already can do that. That is why we have the municipal pier,

the beach, the bike path, and many other public places in the Downtown

area. If that isn’t enough for the rest of us, well...

If someone really wants to be Downtown more often, there are still homes

for sale. Buy one!

So, we take away from a few people to give more people “the greater

benefit of what is taken?”

I suppose if we stretch this line of thinking, it would justify a larger

country bombing a smaller, more helpless country, to take their natural

resources, such as oil, to benefit the larger country. We condemn this on

the global level, yet we are doing the same thing on the city level to

our very own people.

Will the rest of the country go the same way as small communities and

their governments?

JOHN S. EVANS

Huntington Beach

As we debate eminent domain, and try to decide if it is timely for

Huntington Beach, a refinement is needed of the statement: “We don’t like

to do it, but it is for the greater good.”

Greater good? As determined by whom?

Lacking a clear definition and a basic understanding of the subject,

there are some who believe that the decision to impose eminent domain is

made by friends of councilmen who have influence, a small group of

self-serving activists, or a group of outsiders who tend to impose

“greater good” clauses on local citizens -- for profit.

The rub comes when some believe, wrongly or rightly, that they do not

share in the decision-making process. Smooth talk and glib phrases by

city staff and outside developers are not grounds for taking real estate

for the greater good.

There is no question as to who has the ultimate decision to implement

eminent domain -- the City Council, then the courts.

The confusion is injected, in my opinion, when we fail to communicate and

worse, when we just do not comprehend. We have too much going for us

living here next to the ocean to let an unclear subject hamper our search

for the ultimate quality of life in our blessed beach city.

If the honorable members of the City Council will communicate and allow

the inhabitants of this town the right to decide or participate in the

initial planning process to determine the greater good for the city as a

whole, we will then comprehend.

This should decrease the confusion of some of us residents who think that

arbitrary power is at play, which allows the outsiders to determine this

so-called greater good, when in fact their sole idea is that the greater

good is measured by the size of their pocketbooks.

CHARLES (REX) MYLES

Huntington Beach

Now that the City Council and staff have gotten their feet wet with the

Zagustin house, it is onward and upward to better things. They have

learned how to take property and are sharpening their tools to do the

same in Downtown Huntington Beach.

Council members are building resumes that they can take to the bank. One

in particular, Tom Harman, is gearing up for the state level. With

eminent domain under his belt you can just imagine all the fine things he

can do for the people and the “community” at the state Assembly level:

“Look at all that blighted land out there in Orange County,” he’ll say.

Gosh, what a challenge it is to take property from people and give it to

a more deserving developer.

If you saw the picture of Zagustin’s house in the paper the other day,

you would ask, “How does that look blighted?”

The only thing that I saw were the oil tanks in the background, but they

were not hers. So how does her house fit in the criteria of eminent

domain?

One thing I am learning from all this is, DO NOT buy property in Downtown

Huntington Beach.

It is a bad investment because values will drop, and some wannabe

politician will take it away from you for your own good.

Tom Harman has lost my vote, even for dog catcher.

DEAN ALBRIGHT

Member, Bolsa Chica Land Trust

Representative, Huntington Beach Tomorrow.