Commission denies housing plan

Dave Brooks

It was a double victory for the Bolsa Chica Land Trust last week when

the Coastal Commission denied a proposal to develop the upper portion

of the wetlands, and then landowner the didn’t follow through on

threats to scrap the sale of part of the wetland to a conservation

board.

Doomsday posturing by developer Hearthside Home’s CEO Ray Pacini

indicated that if its proposal to build 379 homes on the upper bench

wasn’t approved at the Wednesday hearing, Hearthside was prepared to

end talks to sell the remaining lower portion of the wetlands to the

California Wildlife Conservation Board for $65 million in state

money.

That scenario didn’t materialize, despite the Coastal Commission’s

decision not to approve the project. The developers were sent back to

drawing board to rethink the gated-community that commission staff

members said violated numerous environmental protections. Despite

failing to secure approval, Pacini indicated that he still might

accept the conservation deal if the new project pans out.

“There is a project that goes here, but it has to follow the

Coastal Act,” Commissioner Trent Orr told Hearthside Vice President

Ed Mountford during a decisive moment at the hearing. “We should not

have to bend the law to let this go in because we’re tired of working

on it.”

For weeks, lawyers for Hearthside had been preparing a rebuttal to

coastal staff members allegations that the project encroached on

environmentally sensitive habitats and restricted access to public

coastlines. In fact, representatives with Hearthside only agreed to

change their plan when a Coastal Commissioner told them that they

faced having the project rejected if certain details were not

altered.

Hearthside Homes planners are now expected to work with commission

staff members to bring the plan into compliance with the Coastal Act.

Members of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust had reluctantly campaigned

against the Brightwater development, despite threats of losing the

deal to save the 103-acre lower portion.

“It was very difficult because [Hearthside] was dangling the lower

bench over our heads,” Land Trust member Flossy Horgan said. “Sure we

were nervous, but their proposal was too glaring in terms of

violating the Coastal Act. We had to oppose it.”

Pacini didn’t return calls for comment, but in the past he said

his board of directors would only approve the sale of the lower mesa

if Hearthside’s development was approved on its own terms.

“There won’t be any exceptions,” he said in July. “This is a

detailed, specific plan. It needs to be approved substantially the

way it is, or we’re going to have problems.”

Pacini made no mention of scraping the state land deal in a press

release issued Thursday, stating he was only hopeful that the Coastal

Commission “will approve a revised plan in the near future.”

Hearthside’s board of directors has until June 2005 to approve the

sale of the lower Bolsa Chica mesa with money from Proposition 50,

the Clean Water and Coastal Protection Bond of 2002. Campaign finance

records show that Hearthside invested $850,000 in the campaign to

pass the state bond, which provided $3.4 billion for California

environmental projects.

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

966-4609 or by e-mail at dave.brooks@latimes.com.