All I want for Christmas is the Bolsa Chica Mesa

Chris Thomas

Hearthside Homes, hopefully, has seen the writing on the wall --

in fact, they helped put it there. The question is, do they have the

business smarts to be proactive, willing sellers at a fair market

price.

Timing is everything -- the time is now and the money is available

to accomplish what many never thought, after 30-plus years, would

never be possible. The boat is about to sail with no Hearthside on

board.

New projects vying for Proposition 50 dollars keep surfacing, the

most recent being San Simeon. If Hearthside is serious about

Proposition 50 and value the hundreds of thousands of dollars they

pumped into the initiative, they will act now and get the ball

rolling on the sale of the Bolsa Chica mesa before the opportunity

passes.

Bolsa Chica has been an albatross for developers for decades --

and things aren’t going to change. It’s clear the public wants to

protect the last vestiges of wildlife and associated environment --

for water quality, history, balance of nature and, most of all,

because they just need some decent open space to escape the rat-race

... It’s the right thing for the right reasons.

Please, Hearthside, it’s your opportunity to be stockholder and

community hero -- sell the property at a fair price, recover your

losses and leave town a hero; there’s no better time than today.

Happy Holidays. Hope Santa leaves the wetlands and mesa wrapped

with a big red ribbon on Christmas morning for all of Orange County

and the state of California.

* CHRIS THOMAS is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“Sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com or fax us at (714)

965-7174.