HUNTINGTON BEACH – As if a closeout crashed down while surfing, forcing him out of a wave, Gabe Mauser is stopped dead in his tracks when cruising down Beach Boulevard at Ellis Avenue.

Mauser, a self-proclaimed NASCAR Republican and former surfer, likened the new 274-unit Elan residential-commercial complex at that corner to such a wave as he spoke to the City Council.

He said the new developments that have popped up along Beach Boulevard are equally as uninviting as the unrideable waves that crash parallel to the shoreline.

“It feels like you’ve got nowhere to go,” Mauser said.

The Huntington Beach City Council voted Tuesday night to halt new development along Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue, saying the influx of big housing projects is not in keeping with the town’s beachy, suburban feel.

The council approved the measure 5-2, with council members Mike Posey and Barbara Delgleize opposing.

Councilman Erik Peterson proposed the moratorium on new development that is part of the Beach and Edinger Corridors Specific Plan, which was approved in March 2010 and paved the way for mixed-use development to revitalize 459 acres there.

The council asked City Attorney Michael Gates to prepare an ordinance halting new development by March 16.

“The idea that this is the future – I just don’t think it is,” Peterson said Tuesday. He received a standing ovation from a handful of members in the audience. “I can drive down Beach (Boulevard) and see Saddleback; I can see the mountains. It’s a community. Not just a big city.”

The moratorium touched a nerve with about 20 residents who supported Peterson’s proposal at Tuesday’s meeting.

Some 174 people wrote council members in favor of or against the temporary ban, and in an unofficial poll, some 400 residents who use the Huntington Beach Community Forum on Facebook weighed in saying they oppose new dense developments, while 16 said they didn’t care and 12 favored the new buildings.

At Tuesday’s meeting, some called the new buildings “a master disaster” or “unaffordable rabbit hutches.” Councilman Dave Sullivan called some new buildings “monster” developments.

Carol Woodworth, a resident of more than 20 years, said the Elan project would win an award as “the worst building in Huntington Beach.”

“The community is asking you to stop and review the plan,” Woodworth said of the Beach and Edinger Specific Plan. “How can you disagree with that?”

Others, like Jerry Wheeler, the president and CEO of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, said businesses could be turned away with the moratorium. He and Dianne Thompson, who is on the chamber’s board of directors, were among about 10 people who spoke against the measure.

“The word ‘moratorium’ in the business community ranks right up there with the word ‘ban,’” Wheeler said. “The only way to manage growth is by going vertical.”

Thompson questioned the legality of such a measure, saying the council can place a moratorium only on things that pose an immediate threat to the public’s safety or welfare.

In his opposition to quashing development, Posey said that young people starting out need somewhere to go and the city is largely built out. “Recycling and revitalizing” the land is the only way to develop new apartments, he said.

“We can’t send a message to the business community that we’re closed for business,” he said.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2286 or lwilliams@ocregister.com