Brightwater opens doors

It took decades, but a long-planned housing project in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands is open for business, and both developers and environmentalists who were years ago at odds over the development now say they have some reasons to be happy.

The Brightwater housing development, built by developer Hearthside Homes, opened its first eight model homes for viewing Saturday, and sales have already begun.

Roughly 4,000 people toured the new homes Saturday and Sunday, and another 150 took a look on Monday, said Brightwater sales representative Patrick Loyd.

The model ocean-view homes represent the Sands and Trails neighborhoods of the new development, and they are expected to sell in the low-to-mid $1 million range. Two more neighborhoods with more expensive houses are still under construction.

The project still has one more approval process to go through: its annexation into Huntington Beach. The 30-day public comment period on annexation, pre-zoning of segments of the project on county land, and rezoning for parts of the site already on city land opened on Aug. 7 and lasts until Sept. 6. A copy of the city’s report on the environmental impact the annexation of Brightwater will have on Huntington Beach is available at www.surfcity-hb.org/ CityDepartments/ planning/major/.

Bolsa Chica Land Trust member Mark Bixby said he was looking forward to the annexation going through, as it would give the city some power over the area.

“That gets a lot of additional area of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands into the city,” he said. “It’s easier having city jurisdiction in terms of calling on police services and things of that nature.”

Over the three decades that developer Hearthside Homes pushed through the regulatory process, its project changed radically, with a proposed 5,000 homes finally cut down to about 350 on the upper mesa of the wetlands. The project also includes a nature trail and restored wetlands. Construction finally began slightly more than a year ago, and some parts of the development are still being built.

Bixby said the ultimate result of the years of struggle, which he was not directly involved in, inspires current efforts against the Parkside Estates nearby. Opponents won many concessions and have helped protect a lot of land, he said.

“It shows that the decades of struggle were worth it from the environmental point of view,” he said. “It can be a long hard slog to do this kind of preservation work, but we’re in it for the duration.”