Whither to now Sunset Beach? In the wake of it’s recent annual community rock fest fundraiser featuring the tribute band Led ZepLand last Saturday, the news became grim for residents of the beachfront neighborhood that had harbored dreams of becoming a city.
To some, it was the last time they would be as they had been for more than 105 years—a place of freedom, a relic of the American dream of independence, governed slightly by the county in which they’d abide. Their hopes for cityhood were dashed by a vote of the Huntington Beach City Council that sealed their fate.
The Huntington Beach City Council voted 5 to 2 to annex the unincorporated community that had hoped to become independent on Monday, Aug 2 to annex neighboring Sunset Beach. The question had been a long time coming.
The leaders of Orange County have been trying for the past half decade to divest itself of they refer to as “islands”—areas not specifically under a city banner. The reason, the county has said, is that it expends too much money providing services to such places. Perhaps no one cried more deeply that Monday night for the soul of Sunset Beach than Greg Griffin.
For the past few years, Griffin, as the president of the Sunset Beach Community Association, has put his heart and all he had into the march toward cityhood for Sunset Beach. “I’m exhausted. I gave it my all,” Griffin said. “I am disappointed in the outcome, but we have to carry on.”
Griffin said that the Sunset Beach Community’s Association’s biggest project at this time is to return about $100,000 in donation money to Sunset Beach residents who gave money to try and fund the town’s bid for becoming it’s own city. “It’s going to take some time, but we are going to make sure every penny is returned,” Griffin said.
