The Orange County Board of Supervisors recently approved an agreement that would allow a car dealer in Huntington Beach to go ahead with plans to develop a lot for automobile storage on a former landfill.
The dealer, Surf City Auto Group, operates the Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership, and wants to store approximately 1,200 autos at a site on Gothard, near the Central Park Sports Complex. The parcel comprises eleven acres, and would be leased from the county, which could make as much as $250,000 in rent during the first year the lease is effective. The lease would be issued for 10 years for its initial term, and the rent would increase 2.5% yearly during that period.
Pete Shaver is the president of the dealership, and said it had been surprisingly easy to work with the county, allowing the two to devise a sound plan that works for both the dealership and the county. Shaver said his Beach Boulevard dealership had extra inventory that needed to be stored, which was the impetus for his search for a site. This brought him to the idea of the landfill.
The county operated the landfill from 1947 to 1962, which makes it unsuitable for many uses, but a storage facility could be ideal. Shaver said no auto work would be done on the site, and the vehicles would not be washed there. Poster printing can be used to identify the owner of properties like this.
