Harman brings in Bolsa bucks

Paul Clinton

In return for supporting the latest state budget, Assemblyman Tom

Harman said he has secured a commitment from Gov. Gray Davis’

administration to fund the purchase of the Bolsa Chica Mesa.

“There’s money specifically set aside for that purchase,” Harman

said Wednesday, shortly before boarding a plane back to Surf City.

“Now, they have agreed that they will support that acquisition.”

Harman, one of 11 Republicans to support the budget compromise,

was also instrumental in pushing, along with other GOP colleagues,

for the reduction of cuts in funding to the city’s redevelopment

agency to build low-cost housing.

City leaders excitedly embraced state support for the purchase of

more than 200 acres of the Bolsa Chica Mesa, which has been at the

heart of a contentious battle for decades. The price tag is expected

to reach $200 million, Harman said.

“This is great news,” Mayor Connie Boardman said. “This is

something the environmental community in Southern California is

really going to celebrate.”

Under the budget deal approved Tuesday by the Legislature, cities

and counties would also be required to absorb an additional $1.2

billion in cuts.

City Administrator Ray Silver could not be reached for comment on

Wednesday.

Local environmentalists first gathered support for the Mesa

purchase in 2002 by including language in a state bond measure. A

section of Proposition 50, which passed in March of that year,

provided for “the acquisition of not less than 100 acres ... adjacent

to the state ecological reserve in the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Orange

County.”

The state’s Wildlife Conservancy Board is now appraising the mesa

to determine its value. A handful of property owners now hold title

to various parcels, but the largest landowner is Signal Landmark. Its

development arm, Hearthside Homes, has said it hopes to build 387

homes. Hearthside has also said it would consider selling the land.

Harman’s deal with the Davis administration provides for full

funding for the 212 acres set for development and a four-acre parcel

known as ORA-83. The smaller adjacent parcel, a culturally sensitive

Indian burial site where archeologists have found remains, would cost

between $4 million and $6 million. Funding for that purchase would

come from Proposition 40, the statewide park bond that passed in

March 2002, Harman said.

Harman and his Republican colleagues were also able to reduce

Davis’ planned elimination of $250 million in funding to local

redevelopment agencies for affordable housing.

The Davis administration agreed to reduce that cut to about $130

million, leaving more than $100 million intact. Huntington Beach

could receive about $2 million of that amount, Harman said.

A year ago, Davis administration officials offered Harman funding

for Bolsa Chica, but Surf City’s assemblyman turned it down. At the

time, Harman’s legislative director Peter Crandall said: “He just

doesn’t want to condemn the people of California to a bad budget just

to get a little goodie for his district.”