Two of California’s most powerful state environmental panels are questioning how Huntington Beach leaders approved last year’s expansion of the Pacific Airshow by organizers, saying the event improperly cut off access to the beach, pier and state waters.
Over the past three years, the airshow has become the most controversial annual event in the city after Code Four, the airshow’s organizer, sued the city for shutting down the event during the 2021 oil spill off the coast.
That suit was quickly settled by the council’s new Republican majority last May, who also agreed to pay the airshow’s operator over $7 million in a settlement without disclosing all the details to the public.
At that time, both the city council and Code Four CEO Kevin Elliott said it marked a new day for the airshow.
“Congratulations!” Elliott said to the council at a combined press conference. “You saved the airshow!”
But changes to last year’s air show have landed on state regulators’ radar – and not in a good way.
Last week, the State Lands Commission and the Coastal Commission raised concerns about the public’s access to the beach during the Oct. 2023 airshow in letters to the city and Code Four, saying the airshow operators committed violations such as privatizing the pier, closing state waters and selling private tickets to bleachers on the public beachfront.
To read the lands commission’s letter, click here. To read the coastal commission’s letter, click here.
“The October 2023 air show’s widespread unpermitted privatization of public land discussed in this letter is not compliant with the City’s certified (local coastal program), violates public access protection policies of the Coastal Act, and breaches contractual obligations of the City’s lease,” wrote Spenser Sayre of the California Coastal Commission’s enforcement division.
City spokesperson Jennifer Carey declined to comment on the state’s claims Sunday morning, but confirmed the city was reviewing both letters.
Code Four did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday morning.
The airshow is already selling tickets to seats along the pier and private cabanas along the beachfront for the 2024 airshow on their website.
While both commissions stated in their letter that they were not looking to completely shut down future air shows, they both said there would need to be some changes for them to sign off.
“Commission staff would like to reiterate that it is 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,” Sayre wrote.
Both commissions also noted they made repeated attempts to reach out to city staff and Code Four, but their questions went unanswered.
“In 2023, the State Lands Commission (Commission) sent two letters to the city of Huntington Beach (City) and the event operator, Code Four prior to last year’s Huntington Beach Pacific Airshow expressing concerns which were subsequently not addressed by either the City or Code Four,” wrote Brian Bugsch, chief of the Land Management Division for the state Lands Commission.
“These issues remain unresolved,” he continued. “The Commission requests coordination with the City and Code Four to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution on these matters and to achieve a satisfactory approach for the conduct of future Pacific Airshows.”
The letters come as the airshow’s operators are making big pitches about how they want to expand the event, with Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark and CodeFour CEO Kevin Elliott announcing plans earlier this month for a temporary runway to be built on the beach for this year’s airshow.
“Our vision has always been to bring the Airshow to the people and this new infrastructure will allow us to bring the public closer to our world than ever before,” Elliott said in a statement.
The airshow operators have also submitted other ideas to the city for future air shows such as adding concerts or expanding the event from three to five days.
To read the study submitted to city leaders, click here.
City and tourism leaders claim the event generates over $120 million in economic impact for the city.
But those numbers are questionable.
A Voice of OC investigation found there isn’t a lot of data to back that up, with David Bratton, the founder of the company that was hired to study the airshow’s impact, noting their analysts couldn’t identify where all the numbers came from.
“If you wanted to go and do the math yourself, you couldn’t,” Bratton said.
[Read: How Much Money Does the Pacific Airshow Bring to Huntington Beach?]
The city is also facing fights with state agencies on other fronts, as their lawsuit against state housing rules continues to make its way through the courts.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.