HISTORIC WINTERSBURG GETS SUPPORT FROM CITY BOARD
“The Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board, during a public meeting at City Hall on Feb. 7, voted to support the preservation of the Historic Wintersburg site.
Once the hub of the Japanese American community in Orange County, Historic Wintersburg is located at Warner Avenue and Nichols Street. Now vacant and closed to the public, the surviving buildings include the 1910 Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission and the 1912 home of Charles Mitsuji and Yukiko Yajima Furuta, who ran a goldfish farm. The Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force and other groups have been working to preserve and develop the site as a historical and educational resource.
Republic Services, a waste management company, purchased the property from Rainbow Environmental Services in 2014. Vice President David Hauser told reporters in 2016 that the buildings wouldn’t be demolished as stakeholders, including a school adjacent to the property, worked toward a mutually beneficial plan.
Last month it was learned that Republic has made a deal to sell the property to Public Storage.
“We have been working in good faith with Republic Services to purchase the property, in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Trust for Public Land,” Mary Urashima of the task force said last month. “Republic Services has told us during these discussions that they are open to our purchase and have no plans to develop the property. They have now demonstrated they are a willing seller, but have not been dealing with the community preservation group in good faith.””
read the entire article
Rafu Shimpo 17 February 2018.