Wetlands verdict holding up senior homes

June Casagrande

Environmentalist Jan Vandersloot calls it mitigation, but Mayor Steve

Bromberg calls it a quid pro quo at seniors’ expense.

A group of environmentalists led by Vandersloot have temporarily

put the brakes on a senior affordable housing project at Lower

Bayview Landing by asking the Coastal Commission to rule on whether

portions of the site qualify as wetlands.

In the meantime, Vandersloot and others have presented an

environmental wish list for the adjacent Upper Bayview Landing park

to city officials. If the city agrees to the terms, the environmental

groups said they will support the city’s project at the Coastal

Commission.

“I look at this as a complete breach of trust between the

environmental community and the citizens of this city,” Bromberg

said. “What in the world are they thinking to kill a senior housing

project for nothing more than a tire track?”

Of the three spots on the property designated as potential

wetlands, critics say one is just a tire rut with a little stagnant

rainwater in it. The two other depressions, Vandersloot said, have

plants growing in them that indicate the area is naturally part

wetlands. State and local laws restrict development of such wetland

areas. In some cases, the Coastal Commission will permit development

of wetlands areas if environmental improvements are made nearby to

compensate.

“By calling it a tire track, that’s just a pejorative term they

use to dismiss the fact that these are wetlands,” Vandersloot said.

Vandersloot, along with Stop Polluting Our Newport and the Earth

Resource Foundation, initially supported the project. Plans call for

150 units of senior affordable housing on low lands at Jamboree Road

between Coast Highway and Back Bay Drive, with a park on the bluff

above, known as Upper Bayview Landing.

Two things caused the environmentalists to rethink their support.

At a Feb. 25 City Council meeting, a councilman and a parks

commissioner suggested that the city consider adding turf grass to

the Upper Bayview Landing Park. But the idea seemed to fade as fast

as it came up, and the City Council approved the housing plan without

making any changes that would allow turf grass.

The council did, however, send the matter back to the parks

commission for further consideration. Around the same time,

Vandersloot went to the spotted wetlands vegetation on the site.

Now the groups want assurances that the Upper Bayview Landing Park

will be planted with native plants instead of turf grass. They also

want the city to increase the size of a retention basin planned for

the site and to change its plans for grading the high-lying area.

In all, the environmentalists’ list of conditions comprises a

dozen items on the park portion of the land and two more specific to

the lowland area.

In exchange, they say, they’ll give letters of support to the

Coastal Commission and refrain from taking part in or encouraging any

litigation.

Coastal Commission staff, who have conducted a survey of the site,

have recommended that commissioners deny the city’s request when they

vote at their June 11 meeting.

If the city doesn’t get commission approval at the June meeting,

the project will fall under state prevailing wage laws, which will

cost the city about $500,000 more in laborers’ wages.

Bromberg has vowed that, if the Lower Bayview Landing senior

housing project dies, he’ll reverse a former position and push for

senior housing behind the main branch library on Avocado Avenue.

He had originally opposed the idea because development of the site

would obstruct views, but now believes that a senior housing project

that obstructs views is better than no senior housing project at all.

“There will be a senior housing project built in Newport Beach,”

Bromberg said.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.