Famosa Slough Project Foes Suffer Setback

Over the strong objections of the area’s representative and San Diego environmentalists, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee approved a bill Tuesday to take away Coastal Commission jurisdiction over 7 1/2 to 10 acres of Famosa Slough so a developer can build a waterfront condominium project.

The bill that passed the committee Tuesday on a 7-to-2 vote was presented as a compromise between rival measures by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) and Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno).

But Killea and representatives of Friends of Famosa Slough viewed it as a victory for developer Terry Sheldon.

“I think this is an absolute travesty for San Diego,” said Frank Garland, an area resident. “The effect is that the slough will be destroyed.”

Sheldon, who has an option to buy the 20.4-acre parcel along West Point Loma Boulevard near Ocean Beach, wants to build a 400-unit condominium complex.

The bitter ending of the two-hour hearing signaled that the battle over development of marshland--a fight that ended unresolved on the last day of the legislative session last year--is in high gear again. Last time around, Killea engineered a narrow Assembly defeat of a bill that had already passed the Senate.

The bill approved by the committee Tuesday will set aside 7 1/2 to 10 acres of the slough for development after the state Department of Fish and Game and the Coastal Conservancy--a state agency charged with preserving coastal resources--have devised a plan for restoring and upgrading the remaining acreage to support area wildlife. At least half of the wetlands restoration costs would be borne by the landowner.

“That was no compromise. That was almost their bill entirely,” Killea said after the vote.

Just before the vote, Killea told the committee it would be a break with legislative protocol, and bad precedent, to ignore the wishes of the area’s representative on a matter that affects just her district.

Killea’s bill would have limited development to six acres and ended Coastal Commission jurisdiction only after plans for development and restoration of the marsh were intact.

Before amendments, Costa’s bill set 10 acres aside for development and called for restored wetlands on the remaining 10 acres. The entire 20-acre parcel, not just the area being developed, would have been removed from the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission.

The Coastal Commission had given a lukewarm endorsement of Killea’s bill, but strongly opposed Costa’s in both its original and amended versions.

But the Fish and Game Department, which had originally supported Killea’s version, endorsed Costa’s amended version. Pete Bontadelli, legislative liaison, said the department, in a survey completed Monday, had revised its estimate on how much of the wetlands had to be restored to maintain a viable wildlife habitat.

The slough, which conservationists say is an important feeding area for birds using the Pacific flyway, was a part of a larger Mission Bay wetlands complex before dredging in the 1950s.

Water flows into the area through the adjacent city flood control channel only when floodgates are open.

Since the floodgates were installed, area residents had periodically opened them at high tide to allow water into the marshland.

But Sheldon last year began hiring private security guards to keep the trespassers off.

The bill will now be considered by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.