Flier causes latest flap in Bolsa Chica mesa battle

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The battle over development of the Bolsa Chica mesa

turned nasty this week after an environmental group sent out a mailer

that the property’s developer charges is filled with lies.

“It is clearly not intended to be unbiased, fair and informative,” said

Lucy Dunn, executive vice president of developer Hearthside Homes. “It is

intended to misrepresent and misstate the facts, and in my book that’s a

lie.”

The mailer, sent out to 54,000 households last week by the Bolsa Chica

Land Trust, urges people to join the group in opposing Hearthside’s plan

to build more than 1,200 homes on the mesa, which borders protected

wetlands.

The California Coastal Commission is expected to make a final decision on

how much of the mesa can be developed by Hearthside, formerly known as

the Koll Real Estate Group, at a public hearing scheduled for mid-June in

Santa Barbara.

The most outrageous part of the mailer, said Dunn, shows a picture of the

mesa in its current state -- “open and free” -- compared to what the

property supposedly would look like if development is approved.

Areas where Hearthside is prohibited from building, such as the Warner

Pond, are shown as fully developed. There’s even a commercial mall

depicted along Warner Avenue, even though only homes are planned, she

said.

While the project may have changed over the years, the diagram “fairly

represents” what the developer intends to build, said Paul Horgan, the

land trust’s president.

“They will build on every square inch if they can,” he said.

Photographs of birds such as the Cooper’s hawk and white-tailed kites are

included in the mailer with captions referring to them as mesa residents.

In fact, these birds forage over an area many miles greater than the

mesa, where they never actually nest, Dunn said.

But Horgan said those birds should be considered residents because the

mesa is part of their habitat.

The mailer claims untreated waste water from the development will pollute

the wetlands, but Dunn said the runoff will flow into the Outer Bolsa

Bay, which already receives waste water through a flood control channel

from a 27-mile area that extends all the way to Disneyland.

Horgan stands by the mailer’s assertion.

“Why should we add to the problem [of runoff]?” he asks.

To bolster its claim of having widespread support, the land trust’s

mailer includes a photograph showing people holding up signs with the

names of different states and even Italy. But Dunn said she recognizes

some familiar faces among the crowd.

Hearthside is threatening to sue over the mailer. But after years of

legal battles, Horgan said he’s not fazed.

“We have done all right thus far in court against the developer,” he

said.