Builder May Have Cleared Site of Sensitive Plant Life

A large tract of coastal land in the Monarch Beach area that may have contained environmentally sensitive plant life was stripped clean by a Dana Point resort developer over the past several weeks, city officials have charged.

The developer, the Monarch Bay Resort Inc., a division of Japan-based Nippon Shinpan Co., cleared “between 20 and 30 acres” of a hillside above the banks of Salt Creek without proper permits or approvals from the city, according to city officials.

Officials of the development firm, which is planning a $500-million, 232-acre project with a resort hotel and luxury homes on and around the site, acknowledged Tuesday that the land was cleared without permission but contended that the company was only doing necessary weed abatement.

“Certainly we have made a mistake. . . . But it was just a miscommunication,” said Robert Rockefeller, a vice president of the development firm. “We will do whatever it takes to restore the area.”

The damaged area, which lies about a quarter-mile east of Coast Highway between the Links at Monarch Beach golf course and South Shores Baptist Church, may have contained chaparral and coastal sage scrub, which thrive only in limited areas, said Ed Knight, the city’s community development director.

In a letter to the developer dated April 26, Knight demanded that the company halt “all illegal grading and clearing activities” and submit to the city a plan to restore the property.

Rockefeller said the clearing operation was ceased immediately after the company received the letter. But he insisted that the firm was only clearing weeds, not rare plant species, and that the damaged area was was only about 2.4 acres.

“Let’s be honest, it’s our fault,” Rockefeller said. “But I certainly wouldn’t purposely do something like this and endanger a half-billion-dollar project. . . . The city has been terrific to us.”

The $500-million development project is awaiting city approval. The developer has planned on residential use of the damaged area, Knight said.

Monarch Beach Resort Inc., the developer of record since Nippon Shinpan took over the development from financially strapped Qintex last year, is scheduled to give a presentation to the city on May 22.

Along with the damage already done and the potential for further damage from erosion or runoff to the sensitive Salt Creek area below, a planned biological resources survey of the area will be set back, said Lance Schulte, the city’s senior planner. The damage was discovered only days after the City Council approved a $5,000 allocation for biological surveys of all open land areas within the city limits.

“One of these areas shown on the city’s biological resources map is the exact area where Monarch Bay is carrying out illegal grading and clearing operations,” Knight said in the letter.

It was because the city did not know exactly what was out there that it ordered the biological survey, Knight said.

“It hasn’t been a biologically protected area, but we think it does contain the coastal sage scrub,” Knight said. “If it had been done properly, we would have done a biological survey first. Before it was removed, we would have liked to have known some of these answers.”

Fred Roberts, a Mission Viejo botanist who grew up in Dana Point, has surveyed the area himself. He said it definitely is sensitive and does contain coastal sage scrub. He also said he has seen the California gnatcatcher on the property, which he toured Tuesday night with Mayor Bill Bamattre.

“What I’m interested in now,” Bamattre said, “is to try to rectify what has been done here. What they are going to have to do is to address that.”

Coastal sage scrub is a group of plants adapted to a very limited habitat along the Southern California coast, said Jon Fischer, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game. It is considered sensitive because it provides a habitat for the coastal black-tailed gnatcatcher, a bird currently being considered for for the federal list of protected species.

Rockefeller said he was not aware of the possible presence of coastal sage scrub. His company had been clearing its property of weeds since January, and the Salt Creek area “for four weeks at least. It’s not like we’ve been hiding anything. If we would have wanted to, we could have cleared the whole area overnight.”

Rockefeller added that the company has been told in the past that it was not doing a good enough job of weed abatement and was only attempting to address those complaints. He added that transients had been living in the area and the firm was attempting to rid the property of them. “We’ve had vagrants living up there, four or five people at least.”

Knight, however, said the city had never authorized any weed abatement in the damaged area, and that permission from the state Coastal Commission would also have been necessary.