SEAL BEACH : Petitions Turned In on Hellman Project

Members of a residents’ group on Monday presented the city clerk with petitions calling for a special election to decide whether Mola Development Corp. should be allowed to build 329 homes on the Hellman Ranch Property.

With the financial backing of Mola and the support of Mayor Edna Wilson, Councilman Joe Hunt and many former council members, Seal Beach Citizens for Parks, Open Space and Responsible Government collected more than 4,500 signatures in about six weeks, group leaders said.

City Clerk Joanne M. Yeo has 30 days to verify the 2,688 signatures. After that, the council can either approve Mola’s plan or call a special election, which would probably be in May, Yeo said.

Supporters of the plan say the development would bring the city more than $1.5 million in revenues. In addition, they say, the project would provide the city with 41.4 acres of environmentally valuable wetlands, would preserve and restore Gum Grove Park and provide a new community park.

But opponents dispute the plan’s financial and environmental advantages and say that an earthquake fault that lies beneath the property makes the land unstable for development.

Councilman Frank Laszlo, one of three council members who oppose the initiative, supports an alternative plan. Under that plan, drafted by a citizens committee last month at the direction of the City Council, the majority of the Hellman Ranch property would be dedicated to open space, with commercial development allowed only on the bluff area along Seal Beach Boulevard.

The council majority has asked the city attorney to draft that plan as an alternative ballot measure. The council is expected to vote next month on whether to place that and other land-use measures on a special election ballot, Laszlo said.