Mixed Feelings for Koll Plan : Environment: Ecological balance is seen as big factor in proposal for homes and Bolsa Chica wetlands expansion.

A covey of gleaming white birds rose from the waters of Bolsa Chica one morning last week.

Wheeling against the cloudless blue sky, the birds flew in a tight, orderly formation.

Ned Harris, an aerospace engineer from Redondo Beach, watched with an admiring smile, his camera in hand. “There’s no place for birds and wildlife like the Bolsa Chica anywhere else in Southern California,” he said.

Harris was among those who visited the 300-acre Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve last week shortly after the Koll Co. announced a sweeping plan to place 4,884 houses in the area but at the same time greatly expand the size of the protected wetlands.

The plans have produced a mixture of concurrence and concern. And Harris, like other visitors to the Bolsa Chica wetlands, reflected the ambivalence.

“I’ve been coming here for 20 years,” Harris said. “I’d hate to see them do anything to destroy it. Yes, I think that there can be some development over there on the bluffs without destroying Bolsa Chica. But it would have to be done right; it would have to be done right from the very beginning.”

Harris looked at the waters where a brown pelican had just landed. The Bolsa Chica reserve is something precious for all Californians--something that must be handled with great care, he said.

“I hope they (the proposed developer) will have a sense of ecology,” Harris said. “There has to be a balance.”

According to the Koll Co., which proposes the housing development on land rimming the reserve, there will be ecological balance.

“Not only are we going to preserve the existing Bolsa Chica, we’re also going to be enlarging it by donating about 800 acres to the preserve,” said Lucy Dunn, a Koll Co. senior vice president.

Dunn and other Koll Co. officials Wednesday unveiled a detailed plan for their proposed development of privately owned land around the reserve. That plan calls for construction of 4,884 new residences. In return for government support of the project, the company said it would more than triple the size of the existing reserve by donating new wetland acreage.

Visitors to the reserve last week said in interviews that they could see the advantage of larger wetlands. But the visitors invariably added that they hope new construction will not in any way diminish the peaceful atmosphere of the reserve.

Carolyn Kreber, a new resident of Orange County, said the wetlands are already extremely important to her life.

“I moved to Huntington Beach last Sept. 1 from San Diego, and I started looking for a quiet place with wildlife, and I found Bolsa Chica,” Kreber said as she stood on a viewing platform at the ecological reserve, holding a bird-watchers’ guidebook. “This place has opened up a whole new living style for me. It’s restful; it’s quiet. I hope they don’t destroy it.”

Nearby, a Swiss father and his two young children also marveled at the peace and wildlife of the wetlands.

“We’re here on business for four months from Switzerland,” Stefan Brengard said. “We like to come to this place to get away from all the traffic and to walk and to watch the birds.”

The Bolsa Chica reserve, located off Pacific Coast Highway near Warner Avenue, worked its peaceful magic on scores of other visitors. People walked over a wooden ramp across the marshy water and gazed at the wildlife and natural scenery.

Admission is free and the reserve has a small, paved parking lot, from which walking trails extend.

A wire fence separates it from the surrounding expanse of empty, privately owned land.

If the Koll Co. plan gains final government approval, the fence will come down. More ocean water would come into the wetlands through a non-navigable channel cut to the ocean under Pacific Coast Highway. A sweeping new lagoon would form on land that is currently mostly dry.

According to the plan, houses would be built on now-empty land bordering Warner Avenue and Los Patos Avenue.

The proposal to build on bluff land along Warner Avenue has drawn little criticism. But some environmentalists and a coalition of homeowners’ groups have said they oppose construction on any low-lying lands east of the reserve.

Koll officials, however, have said that for the plan to be economically feasible, all of the proposed 4,884 houses must be built.

“This plan is a trade-off,” said Dick Ortwein, president of Koll Co.’s Southern California division. “To make donation of the land for more wetlands possible, there must be an economically feasible development plan.”

Environmental officials have said that wetlands, which provide vital nesting and feeding areas for waterfowl, are the most depleted wildlife habitat in the nation. Orange County is no exception, since 90% of its original saltwater marshes have been developed, pushing several species close to extinction.

The reserve, the most prized of the county’s remaining marshes, is home to hundreds of native birds as well as wintering waterfowl from the Arctic.

One of its rarest species is the California least tern, a gull-like bird which nests almost exclusively in Orange County. The bird, which has been listed as a federal endangered species for more than 20 years, arrives in Huntington Beach every spring to feed on fish at the wetlands and to nest at nearby beaches.

Some local environmentalists said they fear that too much is being sacrificed under the Koll Co. plan. Of particular concern is the lowlands, which they say should be restored as prime waterfowl habitat instead of being developed as Koll Co. proposes.

“Because so much wetlands has been lost in California, especially Southern California, you have to hang on to every square foot you can,” said Gary Gorman of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, a local group that restored the Talbert Marsh near Brookhurst Street in 1989.

“There has to be some compromise, but from our perspective none of the lowlands should be developed,” he said. “There is enough bluff-top and upland areas that are developable without impacting wetlands.”

Before development can begin, the Koll Co. still has to obtain approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. Because of sweeping losses, the nation’s wetlands are now protected by a federal law that requires “no net loss.” In practice, that means for every acre filled, another acre must be created or restored.

But despite the law, biologists say the success rate of restoring and creating wetlands is low, and many projects in California have failed. It is an inexact, complex science, and without the proper mix of plants, soil nutrients and marine life, the marshes cannot sustain birds and other wildlife.

Even when designed and built properly, a newly created marsh takes years to become functional, and it then must be managed for many more years, environmental officials have said.

“When you create wetlands, a lot of times it is a gamble, a crap shoot. You’re giving up a known habitat for unknown,” said Gorman, who headed restoration of the 25-acre Talbert Marsh, a project considered successful.

Koll Co. officials last week pledged that the expanded Bolsa Chica wetlands similarly will be a successful ecological venture.

“This wetlands restoration will be something the whole nation can be proud of,” said Dunn.

But Adrianne Morrison, executive director of Amigos de Bolsa Chica, said the environmental group will be taking a “show me” attitude. The Amigos do not oppose the plan, Morrison said. But the group will be monitoring each rung on the governmental-process ladder that leads to proposed construction in 1994.

A Delicate Balance

The Koll Co. hopes to build 4,884 homes in 1994 around the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, a wetlands area thriving with bird, sea and plant life. Despite Koll’s plans to enlarge the wetlands, some groups say the building project must be scaled back to protect the sensitive habitat.

Regaining Ground

Settlers in Orange County drained much of the Bolsa Chica wetlands around the turn of the century. 1900: 2,300 acres 1991: 300 acres 1994: 1,100 acres

Bolsa Chica: The Koll Development Plan

The proposed Bolsa Chica development is greatly reduced from plans 10 years ago to build a marina in the area. But citizens’ groups want further reductions, which the Koll Co. says would make the home-building and wetland restoration proposal economically infeasible.

1) Existing Wetlands: State owns 300 acres that support hundreds of native birds and migrating waterfowl, including some endangered species.

2) Wetland Restoration: Koll Co. would donate 800 acres for restoration, which involves cutting an inlet to the ocean. Some areas will have to be managed, to re-establish wetland life.

3) Bolsa Chica Mesa: Critics favor a lower-density development than proposed. They want construction limited to no more than 980 homes.

4) Bolsa Chica Lowlands: Critics want the area restored as a waterfowl habitat, but Koll wants to develop it with single-family homes. Critics also oppose a proposed road that would run along the wetlands’ edge.

5) Seasonal Ponds: These areas need no restoration. They feature rain and ground-water ponds, and provide food and nesting grounds for ducks and shore birds.

6) Future Park: Koll would donate about 50 acres for this long-proposed park, which would link Huntington Central Park to the ocean.

SOURCE: Koll Co.; Amigos de Bolsa Chica; Bolsa Chica Conservancy

Researched by DANNY SULLIVAN / Los Angeles Times