SEAL BEACH : Wetlands Project Backing Withdrawn

The California Coastal Commission staff has tentatively reversed its endorsement of plans for a 355-unit residential development on the Hellman Ranch property here.

The staff, which supported the proposal at the Nov. 14 commission meeting, now has decided to recommend against it because of numerous environmental concerns the commissioners raised, staff member Jack Aimsworth said.

But the latest opinion “is not etched in stone,” Aimsworth said. “Nothing is final until the staff report has been written” in another two weeks.

The commission, which rejected the plan on a 5-5 vote at its November meeting, is scheduled to vote on it again in January.

Previously, the staff supported the proposal because Mola Corp. had committed itself to fully restoring 36 acres of severely degraded wetlands in return for permission to build. Because of this stipulation, staff members termed the entire plan a restoration project.

But commission members questioned that label, saying it might be more appropriate to call a plan which involved building 355 homes a development project. Further, they argued that most of the 149-acre site in southwest Seal Beach was considered historic wetlands and that more than 100 acres of that land could be turned into fully functional tidal wetlands.

But Mola project director Kirk Evans said it was not likely that any of the Hellman Ranch land would be restored to wetlands if Mola was not allowed to build.

“Where is the money going to come from? Who is going to buy that land? The ports (of Long Beach and Los Angeles) have said publicly that they have no interest in restoring 100 acres of this land because of the cost. If they don’t do it, who will?” he said.

But Galen Ambrose, vice chairman of the Seal Beach Wetlands Restoration Society, said a rejection of Mola’s development could reduce the cost of restoration.

“The Coastal Commission could set a price on (the property) by not approving it for development. If you can’t develop it, then it’s not worth as much,” he said. If the land were devalued, the cost of restoring the wetlands would drop and more people would be interested in doing the work, he argued.