Showdown on the mesa

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- It’s the meeting everyone has been waiting for.

Groups of local environmental activists, developers, city officials

and residents will flock to Los Angeles today for a meeting that may

decide the final fate of the Bolsa Chica mesa.

The California Coastal Commission, a state board of 12 members --

including Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff -- may modify a local coastal

plan for Bolsa Chica, which includes limiting residential development to

1,235 units by Hearthside Homes on the upper mesa and designating the

lower mesa as a conservation area.

“Bolsa Chica is one of the last remaining wetland areas in the state,

and it’s definitely the largest,” Dettloff said. “Its significance is

tremendous, and it has always been that way.”

There are about 1,588 acres of unincorporated land contained in Bolsa

Chica, which is within the coastal area, bordered on the north and south

by Warner and Seapoint avenues with Pacific Coast Highway on the west.

The Bolsa Chica mesa spans about 234 acres along Warner Avenue, with

about 49 acres tied into open space areas on the Huntington mesa and

Edwards thumb, along Seapoint Avenue. About 1,200 acres of state-owned

lowlands bridge the two and contain a 300-acre wetland ecological

preserve.

The land serves as a pit stop for wintering and migratory birds each

year, including raptors and the least tern, a bird marked as endangered

by the state.

Development at Bolsa Chica has been a long-lived controversy, drawn

out almost 30 years since the state first secured about 300 acres for the

preserve in 1973.

The Coastal Commission began reviewing the Bolsa Chica coastal plan in

1982 and adopted an intensive development plan for a marina, motel, 500

acres of residential housing, a navigable ocean inlet, a roadway through

the wetlands and 915 acres of wetlands restoration.

Since then, the plan has been scaled down to its current incarnation

because of appeals from conservationists and efforts by developers.”I’m

not sure that the surrounding neighborhoods will stand for what the

commission staff is proposing,” said Lucy Dunn, executive vice president

of Hearthside Homes. “We originally planned up to 1,235 [single-family

homes] on the mesa. Under the recommendation, we still get that amount

but on 173 acres.”

It could mean between building three- and four-story condominiums on

the upper mesa instead, she added.

While Dunn did not comment on whether building attached condominiums

instead of detached homes could affect land values, city officials said

development costs could be higher, although it depends on the project’s

size, style and location.

“Of course, land that has a conservation easement will still have some

value, especially to nature groups who would want to take over its

management,” said David Biggs, the city’s economic development director.

Juana Mueller, a founding member of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust since

1992, said her group has always hoped to one day buy the whole Bolsa

Chica for conservation.

Officials with the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, an organization that has

fought for 25 years to protect the wetlands and accompanying land, and

the land trust said they support the commission’s recommendation and hope

to turn out in large numbers at today’s meeting.

Dettloff, a founding member of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, said while

she has detailed knowledge of the area’s history and the concerns of

developers and the community, her final decision, as well as the

commission’s, will hinge on the public hearing.

“I expect that the other commissioners will have questions regarding

the scientific data collected by raptor experts on the wildlife, as well

as legal questions on what the commission can legally do as far as

dedicating acreage for that habitat use,” she said.

FYI

The Bolsa Chica Local Coastal Plan Amendment hearing will begin at 9

a.m. today at the Furama Hotel, 8601 Lincoln Blvd., Los Angeles.

Information: (562) 590-5071.