City moving ahead to save Little Shell

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- After half a year of debate, city officials are

moving toward an agreement to save a tiny piece of nature.

A small pocket of wetlands near the intersection of Pacific Coast

Highway and Beach Boulevard has been the center of a lawsuit filed

against the city, developers and the California Coastal Commission on

behalf of local environmentalists.

Little Shell, as it is called by environmentalists, is seven-tenths of

an acre of wetlands set to be filled by developers to accommodate 35 new

homes, part of the Robert Mayer Corp.’s Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort

expansion.

In a special Oct. 24 session, the City Council discussed the lawsuit,

as well as strategies aimed at satisfying all the parties involved.

“I can tell you that we’ve embarked on a course to try and settle this

lawsuit with the Bolsa Chica Land Trust” and other agencies, said

Councilman Dave Sullivan, adding that further details were confidential.

In April, the California Coastal Commission approved a plan to fill

the wetlands because Robert Mayer Corp. agreed to restore wetlands four

times the size of Little Shell at the Shipley Nature Center. But the

environmentally minded Orange County Coastkeepers, Bolsa Chica Land

Trust, Sierra Club and others filed the lawsuit to protect the small

wetlands.

“I don’t know what we’re here to talk about since you and the

California Coastal Commission have already made your decision,” Garry

Brown, founder of the Coastkeepers, told the panel during the council

meeting. “We think it’s possible to incorporate these wetlands into the

planned development and restore them.”

In a Sept. 12 letter, the Coastal Commission revoked Robert Mayer

Corp.’s permit to build on the city-owned wetlands and adjacent 22-acre

property because it did not receive correct land division maps for the

property when the permit was granted two years ago. City officials said

the permit was issued under the city’s local coastal program, not the

commission’s, and the appeal time has since run out.

However, council members said the Hilton expansion is important to the

city, and while sales revenue would be lost by developers and Huntington

Beach if the small wetlands is left untouched, it could be a condition to

move forward with the development.

“What we’re doing is working out a solution with the city, developers

and the commission to find a solution that fits the needs of everyone,”

said Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff, who is also a member of the Coastal

Commission. “That way everyone can move ahead satisfied.”