Optimism abounds at Bolsa Chica

Dave Brooks

The controversy over development of the Bolsa Chica is closer than

ever to being resolved, with all sides in the dispute expressing

optimism that the decades-old battle could finally end.

Once slated for 5,700 homes, several marinas and hundreds of acres

of commercial buildings, the coastal wetlands along Pacific Coast

Highway might now be dotted with only 347 homes at the northern-rear

Los Patos Avenue border.

The environmental groups that fought for years to protect the

wetlands would also see a shift in their roles, from coastal

advocates to wetlands stewards, restoring hundreds of acres they

spent years fighting to protect.

“There’s plenty of work still to this day,” said Henry Evans of

the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. “If you look at the mission of the land

trust, it’s not just to acquire, but to preserve and restore. This is

a natural progression.”

On Jan. 21, landowner Hearthside Homes submitted its most

scaled-down plan yet to build a luxury community with homes averaging

about 2,700 square feet on the upper portion of the mesa. While

members of the land trust said they’d prefer to see no development on

the Bolsa Chica, Evans said this plan is the closest to a compromise

the two sides had ever reached.

Hearthside’s sister company Signal Landmark bought the land in

1970 from a gun club that had operated the site 20 years earlier.

Almost immediately, the property became a controversy, with the state

laying claim to a quarter of the wetlands and eventually securing 328

acres for conservation.

Recognizing the ecological significance of the land, the Amigos de

Bolsa Chica formed and launched a 15-year legal battle over the fate

of the wetlands. In 1990, the smoke finally cleared and Signal agreed

to sell a majority of the property, about 880 acres, into

conservation using remediation money from the expansions of the Long

Beach and Los Angeles ports.

The next battle was ignited by the land trust, which moved to

block Signal from building 1,000 homes on the remaining 200 acres

surrounding the wetlands. In 1999, the group filed a lawsuit to

overturn the Coastal Commission’s approval of the project, eventually

forcing Signal Landmark to sell another 100 acres into conservation,

this time using $65 million from Proposition 50, a 2002 initiative to

provide $3.4 billion for environmental projects.

And the battle still wasn’t over. Hearthside CEO Ray Pacini said

he would only accept the money if the Coastal Commission approved a

plan to allow him to build 379 homes on his final remaining 103 acres

of land along the upper portion of the mesa. Pacini seem destined for

a crash course with the commission when he tried to force through his

development at an October hearing against the recommendation of

commission staff members who wanted to block the project on

environmental grounds.

Pacini eventually agreed to go back to the drawing board once

more, returning in January with a scaled-down version that Coastal

Commission staffer Teresa Henry optimistically said has a good chance

of being approved. She said she is working with an environmental

team from San Francisco to examine the technical aspects of the

project, known as Brightwater, to discover its geologic,

environmental and water-quality impacts.

“We’re really looking at all aspects of this project,” she said.

“There are several levels of review, including making sure that

everything has been correctly submitted. The are some things that the

applicant has not submitted that the applicant is aware of and is

working on getting to us.”

The latest housing development has been scaled down from 77 to 68

acres in an attempt to create a larger buffer with natural areas and

to protect habitats of endangered Tarplant, Eucalyptus groves and

burrowing owls. Pacini also agreed to eliminate proposals to

construct parking areas, clubhouses, swimming pools and recreation

areas. Two of the residential models with 4,000- and

7,000-square-foot lots, were also axed

The biggest change was the elimination of Brightwater’s gated

community concept. To meet demands from the commission that the

project not block pedestrian or vehicular access, all sidewalks,

streets and entryways have been made public.

“It really looks they’re headed in the right direction,” Evans

said. “What it comes down to is that the resolution of the issues

relative to the Coastal Commission are a lot closer than what they

were [originally] representing.”

Pacini didn’t return several calls for interviews, but in a

lengthy SEC filing, cautiously told company shareholders that the

deal was far from finished.

“There can be no assurance,” he wrote, “as to when development

could commence, or as to the number of acres or homes the company

will be permitted to develop, or that further litigation or

administrative delay will not result.”

The news sent Landmark’s stock to a near 52-week high, closing

Monday at $26.15 a share, more than double its value in March.

Pacini wrote that project approval could result in a coastal

development permit by the end of 2005. McHenry said to expect a

hearing on the matter at a to-be-determined Orange County location in

March, or in Santa Barbara in April.