Rezoning Could Triple Population of Catalina Island

In idyllic, isolated Two Harbors, groceries come once a week on a barge that anchors in the aqua waters, most residents get their telephone calls from the local switchboard operator, and a newcomer is somebody who arrived five years ago.

In quaint Avalon 13 miles away, development is so carefully controlled that people must join waiting lists for water rights and vehicle permits, and new housing is so scarce that some companies ship their employees back to the mainland every night.

“Nothing much changes here, and that’s kind of the way people like it,” said Randy Bombard, tour director for Doug Bombard Enterprises, which operates commuter boats, island tours and many campgrounds and yacht anchorage coves.

On uncluttered Santa Catalina Island, any change at all is big news.

So, at a Dec. 4 public hearing in Avalon on the biggest rezoning effort on the island since the 1920s, county planners weren’t surprised to find residents worried about everything from environmental damage caused by proposed development to the lack of water to support such development.

Feb. 5 Hearing

Bob Theobald, a county regional planner, said the county will address those concerns in time for the second and final public hearing, set for Feb. 5 in Los Angeles.

Rudy Piltch, chief planner for the Santa Catalina Island Co., which owns nearly all the developable land on the island, said he used the public hearing as an opportunity to assure residents that “we aren’t going to do anything in a big bang on this island. We’re going to do things very slowly.”

If the so-called Local Implementation Program is approved, it will set down zoning rules for the island’s Local Coastal Plan, which was passed in 1983. The plan is required by the state Coastal Act, whose purpose is to balance coastal growth with environmental and public access concerns. The zoning program would set the plan into motion.

If the plan’s most dramatic provisions come to pass, Avalon, population 2,100, will one day have a sizable new neighborhood of 300 “affordable” homes for residents, and tiny Two Harbors, population 150, will be transformed into a resort town with 2,650 dwellings.

The year-round human population on the island, which for years has been outnumbered by 5,000 Spanish goats, 400 roaming bison, herds of wild boars and hundreds of wild house cats, could triple.

Chronic Water Shortage

Although officials on Catalina and in Los Angeles agree that the plan will not materialize for several years, largely because of a chronic water shortage and lack of financing, some islanders worry that the proposed growth will forever alter island life.

Three years ago, when the Local Coastal Plan was approved, “panic sort of set in because people thought it was going to be condo city in five years,” said Doug Bombard, owner of Bombard Enterprises.

“I just hope people know this time that these plans might not happen for 30 or 40 years, even though they could happen in 10,” he said.

Bunny Putnam, owner of Catalina Stables in Avalon, said her greatest concern is that nothing is attempted “that our island cannot absorb. We have so many pressures that if you expand you’ve got to think about the schools and the roads and the new people who will want to use them.”

Backyard Buffalo

Today, she said, “we have buffalo coming right down in our backyard, and that’s wonderful, you know?”

The major developments, worked out by the county, Santa Catalina Island Co. and the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, include:

A resort community in Two Harbors of 2,000 vacation homes and 650 year-round homes. Complete with lodges and restaurants, the buildings would be on slopes that rise from the nearly flat half-mile-wide isthmus. The lowlands would be left as a “view corridor.”

A second airport, near Avalon, that would require massive filling along the island’s largely untouched coast. The county’s aviation division is preparing an environmental impact report on the airport, which would serve only private planes.

Construction of 300 “affordable housing” units in largely undeveloped Avalon Canyon, next to Avalon.

Construction of a multimillion-dollar water desalination plant, probably the largest of its kind in California. Also, expansion and additions to other island “infrastructure,” such as sewage treatment plants and roads.

A new dock for commuter vessels at Empire Landing, a few miles east of Two Harbors. Currently, Catalina Cruises and Catalina Express deliver people from San Pedro and Long Beach only to Avalon and Two Harbors.

Relaxing of rules now enforced by the conservancy to control the number of hikers, campers, bicyclists and moped riders who crisscross the conservancy’s remote and ecologically fragile lands.

County and island officials stress that the plan protects 96% of the pristine island from development.

Those lands, previously designated as “open space,” are controlled by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy in partnership with the county. The conservancy, a private organization formed to protect the island’s open space, was given the lands in 1975 by the Santa Catalina Island Co. The company, controlled by the heirs of chewing gum magnate William J. Wrigley Jr., wanted the island preserved for future generations.

Areas slated for development are owned by the Santa Catalina Island Co., which controls nearly everything outside the conservancy.

Bob Theobald, a county regional planner, said numerous coves used by yachtsmen, and several campgrounds such as the county’s at Little Harbor and organized camps such as the Boy Scouts of America, would be zoned for resort and recreational uses, which would allow light expansion or upgrading.

But, Theobald said, the most dramatic rezoning would occur at Two Harbors. There, mixed-use zoning would allow the eventual construction of a resort community.

Tourist-Oriented Projects

The plan would permit hotels, restaurants, shops and other tourist-oriented developments. It would allow housing on second-floor levels of shops to provide for service-industry workers such as waitresses and tour guides.

In palm-dotted Two Harbors, where children tease their mothers about suffering from “mall withdrawal” and cable television is still on the wish list, the prospect of major development is unsettling for some.

“If you’re talking about 2,600 houses, you are talking about a village--a big, big increase over what’s there now,” Theobald said. “We expect quite a few people are not going to like that.”

Misty Gay, a naturalist for Bombard’s Catalina Cove and Camp Agency, is one who does not like the idea of turning Two Harbors into what many refer to as “a second Avalon.”

Although her employer supports gradual development of Two Harbors into a resort town, Gay said that as a naturalist she is concerned that development will eventually damage the island’s vast interior.

“I really feel that if they develop Two Harbors they would harm the interior,” Gay said.

“Once you get modern society here, with the way they think, you’re going to get people saying, ‘Let’s pave these roads, let’s modernize this place and let’s get some more exotic plants out here,’ ” she said. “I just feel one thing would lead to another.”

‘Another Avalon’

John Stonier, one of the county’s paramedics at Two Harbors, said the plan “would really turn Two Harbors into another Avalon.”

“Now that’s something I can’t have an opinion on, being with the county and everything,” he said, “but as a private citizen, I can tell you it would be something we aren’t used to out here.”

Residents of the isthmus, comfortable with their isolation, even have their own language.

Going “in town” means taking a dusty, winding, 1-hour, 15-minute journey along a dirt road to Avalon. Going “over town” means heading for Los Angeles by boat or plane, and going “downtown” means walking to the village’s general store or only restaurant, Doug’s Harbor Reef and Saloon, for a burger or cool drink.

“I think it would be a damn shame,” said a San Pedro yachtsman who frequents both communities on the island, and asked not to be named. “Hustle and bustle in Two Harbors? It’s just not right.”

Randy Bombard said that while he understands the concerns of his employees and other residents of the isthmus, he trusts the Santa Catalina Island Co. to create a plan that fits the island’s temperament and pace.

“Santa Catalina Island Co. is the one organization I feel real comfortable with,” Randy Bombard said. “It has always been concerned with preservation and conservation of Catalina. . . . I think we’re awfully lucky to have a Santa Catalina Island Co. and not an Irvine Co.”

‘Local Intelligence’

While he favors development, he said the county’s role in determining Catalina’s future concerns him.

“I hope they don’t get (the development plan) so rigid that there can’t be some local intelligence applied,” Bombard said.

Officials of the conservancy also are concerned about the government’s ideas for Catalina.

Doug Propst, president of the conservancy, said the county and state would like the conservancy to throw open its lands to ever-increasing numbers of hikers, bikers and campers.

Today, Two Harbors is the entry point for campers heading to only about 550 overnight campsites on the west end of the island.

Banning House Lodge is the only place for visitors to stay under a roof in Two Harbors, and it has only 10 rooms.

Under the new plan, the isthmus would have 500 hotel rooms, 150 hostel beds and 2,000 resort units, creating a potential for thousands more tourists who want to see the island’s interior.

“Who takes care of the obnoxious drunk coming into a Girl Scout camp, and who keeps them on the trails?” Propst said. “I wouldn’t want to lock future managers of the land into an agreement that says anybody can come onto the land, and that’s what this draft tends to do.”

Counting Tourists

At the Dec. 4 public hearing, Propst proposed a control program under which the conservancy could count the number of tourists entering its lands, and close it when a certain capacity is reached.

“We raised our concern over unlimited access and environmental problems we think could occur, and we found the whole tone was good, that the county was very receptive,” Propst said.

However, Propst’s counterproposal may face some resistance. Opening coastal lands to the public is one of the state Coastal Commission’s top priorities, and it has pressed the point many times in coastal areas such as Malibu.

Theobald, the county planner, said his agency hopes to work out an agreement that will satisfy the Coastal Commission, but which will help the conservancy control the number of visitors using the island’s trails and inland areas.

“The conservancy needs to know that the island is not overburdened, and we’re going to work that out as best we can,” Theobald said.

Propst said the conservancy has balanced its intense efforts to control erosion--caused by voracious goats and lumbering buffalo--with its desire to show Southern Californians the natural wonders of the island. Naturalists point to the many one-of-a-kind species protected on the island, such as the Catalina quail and the Catalina squirrel.

Controlled Land Use

“We’ve opened this land to the public in a way we can control. We’ve done a good job, and we think anyone who tries to require (public) access is essentially looking a gift horse in the mouth,” Propst said.

Officials from island agencies and from the county all agree that major development is years away, at best. Little can ever change on Catalina if water supplies are not increased.

Water already is so scarce on the island that when the county proposed minor expansions of two of its campgrounds this year--projects that would have required additional amounts of water for showers and cooking--Avalon city officials accused the county of trying to plunder their water supply.

“You practically can’t add a bedroom to your house in Avalon if you don’t have that water permit,” Theobald said.

Avalon Mayor Bud Smith said there is no question that “water’s the thing.” He said Avalon leaders fear that new developments outside Avalon will siphon away water supplies needed for developments in town.

Officials of Southern California Edison Co., which controls the water allocations, said a waiting list of projects needing water is rigidly adhered to, and each project must wait its turn.

Water Debate

Nevertheless, Theobald said, the plan’s provisions for upgrading and expanding the campgrounds, and for developing Two Harbors, could exacerbate that debate.

“You’re going to get residents who say, ‘I’ve been waiting two years to add a second story to my house, or more tables to my restaurant, and you’re going to let more campers in to use our water?’ ” Theobald said.

Piltch, of the Santa Catalina Island Co., said his firm has looked into the feasibility of building a water desalination plant to create drinkable water. The other possibility, building a new reservoir to catch rain, is thought to be too environmentally damaging, he said.

He said the idea of desalination, once considered far too costly, is “more than a pie-in-the sky” proposal.

Desalination Cost Down

Water costs about $2 per 1,000 gallons on the mainland, but on Catalina has risen in recent years to about $9 per 1,000 gallons, Piltch said. At the same time, the cost of desalination has dropped to $9 to $12 per 1,000 gallons.

But Piltch said the company will not finance a desalination plant unless it feels there is a strong market that justifies developing Two Harbors.

An entire infrastructure at Two Harbors--new sewers, new water capacity, better road access--would cost $50 million “just to get it off the ground,” Piltch said. Because of that investment, and because the company owns the land outright, it is in no hurry to develop Two Harbors.

“Nothing’s driving it,” Piltch said. “The only thing that might drive it is the need for facilities like hotels to stay in.”

An official of Southern California Edison Co., which has operated the island’s water utility since purchasing it in a package deal along with the power and gas utilities in 1962, said Edison will not back desalination unless it is sure that existing customers will not have to pay more for it.

Conservation Measures

Angelo Kedis, Edison district manager in Avalon, said the entire city uses saltwater in its toilets, and nearly every resident has a water-conserving shower head, because of the water shortage.

“We capture 1% of the rainfall each year, and of course we’d like more water,” Kedis said. “But we aren’t going to encumber our existing customers with higher bills to do it.”

Theobald stressed that the zoning issues, including the best way to develop water resources, are still open to change.

He said written comments will be accepted by his office until the Feb. 5 hearing, and will be addressed in a revised draft of the zoning program.

“Whatever the plan, I just want them to remember that Southern California has few places of natural beauty left,” said Misty Gay, the naturalist.

“They need to remember to ask: What are they going to show the Southern California children years from now?”

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