SEAL BEACH : Mola Takes Its Case to State High Court

Mola Development Corp. has asked the state Supreme Court to consider a case that could affect the future of a 149-acre project on the old Hellman Ranch property.

Jonathon Lehrer-Graiwer, an attorney for the Wetlands Restoration Society, Mola’s opponents in court, said he also will ask the Supreme Court to consider his client’s side of the case. The court has 60 days to respond to the petition.

The 4th District Court of Appeal last month refused to overturn the City Council’s denial of Mola’s development and also rejected the Wetlands Restoration Society’s attempt to have the city’s 1990 housing plan declared invalid.

Mola’s proposed development, which called for 329 homes, 41 acres of wetlands and 26 acres of parks, was originally approved by the City Council but overturned by a Superior Court commissioner because the city’s housing plan was out of date. That plan came into question as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Wetlands Restoration Society.

Attorneys for Mola have argued in the past that the developer should not be penalized because the city did not update its housing plan, as required by state law. Lehrer-Graiwer has argued against the merits of the development and has criticized the city’s housing plan.

Mola, which has invested more than five years and $11 million in trying to build the project, is seeking to have the it reinstated. The company has also resubmitted its plans and filed an $11-million lawsuit against the city, claiming that the basis for the denial was invalid.