Coastal Panel OKs Major Expansion in Long Beach Harbor

The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to allow the Port of Long Beach to proceed with a $98-million landfill project that requires restoration of 116 acres of wetlands in the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge.

In addition, the port must make a good-faith attempt to buy 130 acres from the state in the Ballona Creek area, near Marina del Rey, for wetlands development. But first the state must obtain the land from Summa Corp., which owns the parcel.

The port wants to dredge the main shipping channel into the port to create a 147-acre expansion of Pier J, near the site of the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose tourist attractions.

Larger Ships

The expansion would accommodate four new berths and two new container terminals at the booming port, and the dredging would open the harbor to larger ships. But an environmental study found that the landfill would destroy part of the outer harbor’s fish habitat.

To compensate for the environmental damage, the port proposed getting involved in the two wetlands projects.

“It is the largest mitigation project we’ve done to date,” Leland Hill, the port’s director of planning, said of the environmental offsets.

Acting Port Executive Director Paul Brown said the project still face hurdles, ranging from obtaining a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to countering an informal state attorney general’s opinion that harbors cannot undertake mitigation projects outside their own districts.

The port officials are hopeful that they can open bids this summer and complete the landfill by 1992.

The primary mitigation project for the port would be to spend $9 million in the wildlife refuge near the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, nearby in Orange County, to transform four arid parcels into wetlands.

The properties, ranging from 7.5 to 52.2 acres, would be excavated, with construction of culverts and a 45-foot wide channel. Islands and mounds would be built for birds that inhabit the refuge, including the endangered California least tern and clapper rail.

The port is also prepared to spend $25 million to acquire the triangular property near Ballona Creek, which it could transform into wetlands and use as a mitigation credit for a future landfill project, said Milton Phegley, the commission’s ports coordinator.

The state is currently negotiating to swap a 70-acre parcel on the east side of Lincoln Boulevard for the 130-acre parcel on the west side. State Controller Gray Davis announced the acquisition of the 70 acres earlier this month as part of a tax settlement with the heirs of billionaire Howard Hughes.

Summa, which Hughes founded, wants to build a massive Playa Vista business and residential project in the area surrounding the Ballona wetlands.

If the state is successful in exchanging its parcel with Summa, then the state would let the Port of Long Beach buy the 130-acre site and develop it into wetlands, a State Lands Commission attorney said.

Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas said that combined with acreage already set aside, the port’s involvement could lead to preservation of about 300 acres of Ballona wetlands.

The Ballona wetlands part of the port’s plans “gives them a tremendous incentive to make it work, because they are looking for mitigation sites,” Douglas said. “This would be a terrific addition.”