HUNTINGTON BEACH : Panel Tightens Use of Wetlands Acreage
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The California Coastal Commission on Tuesday put tighter zoning on 232 acres of degraded wetlands on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway, between Beach Boulevard and Brookhurst Street.
Despite protests from landowners who claim that the acreage is no longer natural marsh, the commission unanimously voted to put the land into a wetlands zoning. The action means that only very limited development will be allowed by the state.
Environmental groups have long sought such zoning protection for the area. The privately owned 232 acres are undeveloped and resemble a natural park along Pacific Coast Highway.
Owners of the property told the Coastal Commission at its Tuesday meeting in Marina del Rey that a wetlands designation for the area would be false and would amount to government’s “taking” of the property without paying for it.
Robert London Moore Jr., representing the Mills Land & Water Co., said the state Fish and Game Department erred 10 years ago when the agency classified the acreage as wetlands. Moore said the land no longer has any characteristics of coastal wetlands.
But Charles Damm, district director for the Coastal Commission, said in rebuttal: “The wetlands determination was accurate.”
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