State commissions demand changes ahead of Pacific Airshow
The Huntington Beach Pacific Airshow is still months away, but it’s already experiencing a bit of turbulence.
Earlier this month, Brian Bugsch, chief of the Land Management Division of the California State Lands Commission, wrote a letter to the city of Huntington Beach and the airshow operator, a company called Code Four, pointing to “unresolved” issues regarding the privatization of public property related to last year’s show.
Specifically, a private vendor for the airshow denied access to the public pier without a ticket, even though it was supposed to remain open to the public, and the ocean waters and beach were similarly impacted by efforts to create private areas for the show, the CSLC claims.
“This degree of restriction on public access and recreation along the beach and in the ocean, where boating was also restricted during the event, is not authorized by the City’s lease,” the letter says.
Additionally, the nearby Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and the animals who live there were hurt by low flyovers that “harassed the bird populations and caused them to take flight each time the airplanes flew over,” the CSLC said.
Both Bugsch and Spenser Sayre, enforcement counsel for the California Coastal Commission who sent a similar letter decrying the “privatization of public land at the 2023 air show,” say city officials never responded to their concerns, and this time, they’re hoping to bring these subjects to light before the event.
“Commission staff would like to reiterate that is it not the intent of this letter, or any subsequent meetings between the City, Commission staff, and other involved parties to prohibit future air shows from taking place in Huntington Beach. However, the October 2023 air show’s widespread unpermitted privatization of public land discussed in this letter is not compliant” with the event’s permits and leases, which could result in “formal enforcement action(s),” Sayre wrote.
The CCC’s letter ended with a March 5 deadline for the city to respond.
In a statement to KTLA’s Chip Yost, a city spokesperson said “the City of Huntington Beach is in receipt of the California Coastal Commission and the California State Lands Commission letters as we move forward with the Pacific Airshow Environmental Impact Report development process.”
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