WATERFRONT BEACH RESORT in Huntington Beach.

A payment of $22.4 million – plus interest – is coming to the City of Huntington Beach after the city’s court victory in a case about a loan made to developers back in the era of redevelopment agencies.

It’s a final victory in the case of City of Huntington Beach vs. State of California, a case first filed in 2008. In a letter to the city, the state finance agency wrote it “no longer denies this item … [and] in compliance with the judgment, the agreement for purchase and sale of property … is considered an enforceable obligation.”

Many cities – including Huntington Beach and Garden Grove – took out loans or made other financial arrangements – to spur development under then-existing redevelopment law. When the state dissolved all such agencies, cities that were in the process of developing projects needed the approval of the state finance department to proceed.

Huntington Beach used the redevelopment process to develop three hotels in a resort district along Pacific Coast Highway.

“I am pleased there are no barriers to the city immediately collecting the taxpayer money that was improperly denied by the state for many years,” said City Attorney Michael Gates, referring to “a win for the city that most said before was improbable.”