Park Plan Nears Decision : Environment: A long-proposed county preserve appears certain to be approved. Debate now centers on whether the 113-acre site is big enough.

Morning fog roils around khaki-colored bluffs. In the distance, white egrets fly above the fog, seeking to land in the shrouded wetlands of Bolsa Chica. An angry December ocean thrashes against the shore.

Naturalists say the view from the high ground northeast of the Bolsa Chica marsh is among the most beautiful in Orange County. For more than a decade, conservationists have sought to preserve the undeveloped bluffs by making them part of a regional county park, only to be stymied by the cost or unavailability of the land.

But with enough land finally dedicated by local developers, action now seems assured: City and county officials say 1990 is going to be the year the park gets started.

“I’ve been working for this park for years,” said county Supervisor Harriett Wieder, whose district includes the bluffs. “It’s going to happen next year.”

The project is called the Bolsa Chica Linear Regional Park. It would connect the oceanfront to Huntington Beach’s existing Central Park and in the process wind around part of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, affording park-goers dramatic views of a rare natural habitat.

The current proposal calls for a 113-acre park with picnic areas, a horse riding trail, an outdoor amphitheater seating up to 100 persons, and a hiking trail extending the length of the park, from Ellis Avenue to Pacific Coast Highway.

Mainly, however, the park is envisioned as a passive area of trees and vegetation natural to the California shore.

“This is not a park for teeter-totters and ball field,” City Administrator Paul E. Cook said.

The proposed park is scheduled to go before the Huntington Beach City Council by spring. If approved by the city and then by the county Board of Supervisors, it would become the county’s only general-purpose regional park in the second supervisorial district: a densely populated chunk of northwest Orange County that includes Huntington Beach, Sunset Beach, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Los Alamitos, Cypress, Stanton, west Garden Grove and the western part of Westminster.

But while the regional park has long been a dream of many northwest county residents, the current plan has been criticized as preserving too little space.

“We’re fully supportive of the park in itself,” said Lorraine Faber, a board member and past president of the conservation group Los Amigos de Bolsa Chica. “But we believe it should have adequate size.”

Faber said her group believes the park should be about 150 acres rather than 113. Even at 150 acres, she said, the regional park would be smaller than many others in the county.

The park would be under the care of county government, though parts of it would be in Huntington Beach. The city would contribute about 24 of the 113 acres. Most of the remaining property would be donated by two big landowners, Signal Landmark Properties and the Huntington Beach Co., which are planning residential developments nearby.

Ralph Bauer, a Huntington Beach resident and conservationist, has urged the City Council to proceed with the park, but to set a goal of 154 acres.

“Needless to say, we are enthusiastic about moving this park forward,” he said. “We also feel the proposed 113 acres is insufficient.”

Three City Council members--Mayor Thomas J. Mays, Grace Winchell and Peter M. Green--also say the park needs more acreage. Mays, who said he wants to get the park started “as soon as possible,” suggested that additional parkland be purchased by the county--which presently contributes no land to the park nor any money to purchase it.

Orange County Parks Director Robert G. Fisher said the county could add acreage to the park, “but it would be very expensive--about $1 million per acre, and we only have about $2 million so far to start development of the park.”

If the city and county governments approve the park plan, the park’s dedication might come as early as 1990, and work on park facilities could start in early 1991, Fisher said.

More land could be added to the park later, as developers dedicate open space, Fisher said. The state’s Quimby Act requires developers to donate portions of their land to city governments for parks as they build homes on vacant land.

“We intend to expand the park in future years,” Fisher said. “That is the plan. But I don’t think we should delay the start of it as we wait for more land to become available.”