A PROPOSED MIXED-USE project for Main Street in Huntington Beach.

Development, for good or bad, is one of the things that affects people the most in an urban/suburban environment. Construction of a new shopping center, housing project, restaurant, etc. can influence things like traffic, noise, views, light pollution, convenience, property values and more.

If you live in Huntington Beach, there’s a great resource available now to monitor the status of developments in Surf City. It’s http://gis.huntingtonbeachca.gov/CD-Projects-Map/.

Check it out and you can find whether that rumored (or actual) project is simply in the planning stage, or under construction or maybe not real at all. It also offers maps and illustrations of the proposed new projects.

One that caught our eye is a four-story mixed-use project at 414-424 Main Street. Still in the planning stages, it would be a four-story mixed use building with 20 residential condos, 5,000 square feet of commercial space, and underground parking.

We’ve seen a fair amount of pushback from all across the area on mixed-use development combining housing and commercial. However, it’s the wave of the present and future. Developers love it because they can get more use out of a piece of land, and many people – especially millennials – like having a store or eatery just a few steps away.

Tourism is already big on Garden Grove’s stretch of Harbor Boulevard – termed the Grove District of the Anaheim Resort area – but it’s turning into quite the big deal in Huntington Beach, too. In addition to the hotels along Pacific Coast Highway, there’s another big hospitality project in the planning stages.

Shopoff Realty is proposing to build a 211,000-square foot lodge with 175 guest rooms and a guesthouse with 40 beds at the Magnolia tank farm location at 21845 Magnolia St. (west of Magnolia at Banning Avenue).

The project would also include 19,000 square feet of retail, 250 for-sale dwelling units, 2.6 acres of parks and 2.8 acres of coastal conservation area to provide a buffer to the adjacent wetlands.

West side story … a movie tale

Folks on the west side of Garden Grove have been complaining recently about vacancies and a general lack of development in the Valley View Street corridor, which is sort of the Main Street for that end of town.

So there’s a fair amount of excitement about a project that could be built on what’s now the site of the Four Star Cinema on the west side of the street, just south of Chapman Avenue.

A developer, Valley View Cinema Center LLC, wants to expand the existing movie house from four auditoriums to five. According to Maria Parra, senior planner for the City of Garden Grove, the new cinema would have one large auditorium along with four smaller ones. They would all be of a more modern style, with recliner-style seating and other amenities.

Other plans for the area include replacing the vacant China Buffet with an automated car wash, a Jack-In-The Box fast food restaurant including a drive-through lane and other food choices.

The developer is seeking to acquire the recently closed Valley View Lanes bowling center, but there are other interested parties as well.

But don’t go order your movie tickets yet. No official plans or proposals have been submitted to the city yet, said Parra. Usually Reliable Sources will be keeping an eye on it.

Usually Reliable Sources appears on alternate weeks.