Huntington Beach, California
City
Clockwise: the Huntington Beach Pier; Huntington Beach High School; aerial view of the coast; Sunset Beach and Huntington Harbour; downtown
Flag Seal
Nickname:  Surf City[1]
Location of Huntington Beach in Orange County, California
Huntington Beach Location within Greater Los Angeles Show map of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Huntington Beach Location in the state of California Show map of California Huntington Beach Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 33°41′34″N 118°0′1″W / 33.69278°N 118.00028°W / 33.69278; -118.00028
Country	United States
State	California
County	Orange
Incorporated	February 17, 1909; 115 years ago (1909-02-17)[2]
Named for	Henry E. Huntington
Government
• Type	City Council/City Manager[3]
• Mayor	Gracey Van Der Mark[4]
• Mayor pro tem	Pat Burns
• City council[6]	Rhonda Bolton Dan Kalmick Casey McKeon Natalie Moser Tony Strickland
• City attorney	Michael E. Gates[5]
• City manager	Al Zelinka
Area [7]
• Total	28.33 sq mi (73.38 km2)
• Land	27.00 sq mi (69.92 km2)
• Water	1.33 sq mi (3.46 km2)  16.10%
Elevation [8]	39 ft (12 m)
Population  (2020)[9]
• Total	198,711
• Rank	4th in Orange County 23rd in California 124th in the United States
• Density	7,000/sq mi (2,700/km2)
Time zone	UTC−8 (Pacific)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−7 (PDT)
ZIP Codes[10]	92605, 92615, 92646–92649
Area codes	562, 657/714
FIPS code	06-36000
GNIS feature IDs	1652724, 2410811
Website	huntingtonbeachca.gov

Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, United States. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth most populous city in Orange County, the most populous beach city in Orange County, and the seventh most populous city in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Downtown Los Angeles, it is bordered by Bolsa Chica Basin State Marine Conservation Area on the west, the Pacific Ocean on the southwest, by Seal Beach on the northwest, by Westminster on the north, by Fountain Valley on the northeast, by Costa Mesa on the east, and by Newport Beach on the southeast.

Huntington Beach has a long 9.5-mile (15.3 km) stretch of sandy beach, mild climate, excellent surfing, and beach culture. Swells generated predominantly from the North Pacific in winter and from a combination of Southern Hemisphere storms and cyclones in the summer focus on Huntington Beach, creating consistent surf all year long, hence the nickname "Surf City".^[1]

History

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The Tongva village of Lupukngna was located in what became Huntington Beach, with an approximate location near the Newland House Museum.^[11] The nearby village of Genga, shared with the Acjachemen, was located across the Santa Ana River in what became Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.^[12][13]

The main thoroughfare of Huntington Beach, Beach Boulevard, was originally a cattle route for the main industry of the Rancho. Since its time as a parcel of the enormous Spanish land grant, Huntington Beach has undergone many incarnations. Once it was known as Shell Beach, the town of Smeltzer, and then Gospel Swamp for the revival meetings that were held in the marshland where the community college Golden West College stands. Later it became known as Fairview and then Pacific City, as it developed into a tourist destination. In order to secure access to the Pacific Electric Red Car lines^[14] that used to criss-cross Los Angeles and ended in Long Beach, Pacific City ceded enormous power to railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington, and thus became a city whose name has been written into corporate sponsorship, and like much of the history of Southern California, boosterism.

The original Huntington Beach Pier was built in 1904 and was a 1,000-foot-long timber structure.^[15][16] Huntington Beach was incorporated on February 17, 1909, during the tenure of its first mayor, Ed Manning. Its first developer was Huntington Beach Company (formerly the West Coast Land and Water Company), a real-estate development firm owned by Henry Huntington. The Huntington Beach Company is still a major land-owner in the city, and owns most of the local mineral rights. The company is wholly owned by the Chevron Corporation.^[17]

At one time, an encyclopedia company gave away free parcels of land (with the purchase of a complete set for $126) in the Huntington Beach area.^[18] The lucky buyers got more than they had bargained for when oil was discovered in the area, and enormous development of the oil reserves followed. Though many of the old reserves are depleted, and the price of land for housing has pushed many of the rigs off the landscape, oil pumps still dot the city.

Huntington Beach was primarily agricultural in its early years with crops such as lima beans, asparagus, peppers, celery and sugar beets. Holly Sugar was a major employer with a large processing plant in the city that was later converted into an oil refinery.

The city's first high school, Huntington Beach High School, located on Main Street, was built in 1906. The school's team, the Oilers, is named after the city's original natural resource.

Meadowlark Airport, a small general-aviation airport, existed in Huntington Beach from the 1940s until 1989.^[19]

Huntington Beach Speedway, a racetrack designed for midget car racing, existed from 1946 until 1958.^[20]

In 2023, Huntington Beach became involved in a lawsuit against California governor Gavin Newsom. In March 2023, the state sued Huntington Beach for failing to comply with state housing regulations. The suit brought by the state argued that the city’s ban on the processing of Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) applications violated state housing laws. The city responded with a countersuit that argued it is not subject to state housing laws.^[21] The state law required Huntington Beach to zone for 13,368 units to be built inside the city limits from October 2021 to 2029.^[22] Huntington Beach's lawsuit describes overturning the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) which determines how housing needs are allocated. Huntington Beach council members have argued that local zoning should be left in control of the state.^[23] The state had submitted and amended a complaint as of April 10, 2023 arguing that the city is in violation of the Housing Element Law. The state was seeking both penalties and injunctive relief. In addition to relief, the state was seeking the suspension of the city’s permitting authority and mandating the approval of certain projects.^[24] The state filed a motion on June 22, 2023 to dismiss the city’s federal lawsuit. As of November 15, 2023, a federal judge has dismissed Huntington Beach’s lawsuit against the state over housing mandates.^[25]

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 31.9 square miles (82.6 km²). 26.7 sq mi (69 km²) of it is land and 5.1 sq mi (13 km²) of it (16.10%) is water.

The entire city of Huntington Beach lies in area codes 714 and 657, except for small parts of Huntington Harbour (along with Sunset Beach, the community adjacent to Huntington Harbour), which is in the 562 area code.

Climate

Huntington Beach has a borderline semi-arid/Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk/Csb), gradually changing for the second to the west and south due to its low precipitation. Although areas such as Huntington Central Park and northern Bolsa Chica usually fall into the first climate type, thus being the boundary of the cool summer Mediterranean climate on the west coast of North America, except for elevated portions in the southern end of the state.^[26] The climate is generally sunny, dry and cool, although evenings can be excessively damp. In the morning and evening, there are often strong breezes that can reach 15 mph (24 km/h). Ocean water temperatures average 55 to 65 °F (13 to 18 °C). In the summer, temperatures rarely exceed 85 °F (29 °C). In the winter, temperatures rarely fall below 40 °F (4 °C), even on clear nights.^[27] There are about 14 inches (360 mm) of rain, almost all in mid-winter. Frost occurs only rarely, on the coldest winter nights. The area is annually affected by a marine layer caused by the cool air of the Pacific Ocean meeting the warm air over the land. This results in overcast and foggy conditions in May and June.