Council Rejects Development on Hellman Ranch

After four years of heated debate, the City Council late Monday denied a developer’s request to build a residential housing tract on 149 acres of the Hellman Ranch property.

The 3-2 vote appeared to mark an end, at least temporarily, to the Mola Development Corp.’s quest to build 329 single-family homes in northwest Seal Beach. The plan, which had met stiff resistance from environmentalists since the beginning, also called for the company to restore 41 acres of wetlands and to donate 26 acres for city parks.

In the end, council members expressed concern over conflicting geological reports concerning an earthquake fault that runs beneath the area.

“There are too many conflicting reports,” said Councilwoman Gwen Forsythe, who voted against the project.

“I hear strong evidence that there is a hazard” from an earthquake fault, Councilman Frank Laszlo added. “The city of Seal Beach should not be used as guinea pigs for new mitigation measures to reduce hazards of future earthquakes.”

Voting against the project were Laszlo and the two members who were elected to the council on May 8--Forsythe and Marilyn Bruce Hastings. Voting for the project were Councilman Joe Hunt and Mayor Edna Wilson. After the council cast its vote, a crowd of more than 250 people broke out in cheers.

Kirk Evans, project manager for Mola, would not comment on the vote or say if the company planned to resubmit its plans another time.

Before the May 8 election, the council had supported the Mola project by a 4-1 margin. The council approved Mola’s proposal last fall, but in March, an Orange County Superior Court commissioner derailed that approval by declaring the housing portion of the city’s general plan invalid. According to state regulations, without a valid housing plan, the city cannot approve new residential developments.

Outgoing Mayor Victory Grgas had made an unsuccessful, last- ditch effort to get the development approved before the new council took office by holding a marathon meetings that lasted into the early morning hours. Hastings campaigned against the project and joined incumbent Laszlo as a Mola opponent. Forsythe was regarded as the swing vote and since she joined the council had questioned the safety of the project.

Concerns that the ground may be unsafe to build on had recently held up the project. Geologists representing both the developer and the Wetlands Restoration Society presented conflicting assessments, and the city eventually hired UC Davis geotechnic engineer Kandiah Arulanandan to evaluate the project. Arulanandan’s report recommended further testing but did not reach any hard conclusions about the suitability of the land for housing.

Chief among the geological concerns was the earthquake fault running through the site and the potential for liquefaction of the soil in the event of a quake. Evans, Mola’s project director, said the potential for liquefaction on the Hellman Ranch site was no greater than in other parts of the city that have already been developed.

Dr. Robert Winchell, a geologist working on behalf of the Wetlands Restoration Society, said earlier that any efforts to offset liquefaction would only be “experimental” with no guarantee of success.

“There are no places where these things have been tested,” he said at an earlier council meeting.