Wetlands Conservancy Dumped Dirt Illegally : Environment: Despite embarrassing revelation, Huntington Beach Planning Commission gives nonprofit group approval to build on site.

The much-honored Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy illegally placed 4,590 cubic yards of dirt on vacant land at Pacific Coast Highway and Newland Street, city officials confirmed on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, the conservancy received approval from the city Planning Commission on Tuesday night to build a wildlife hospital at the site, where the dirt had been dumped in preparation for grading. The issue now goes to the state Coastal Commission for final approval.

City Planning Director Howard Zelefsky said that the nonprofit conservancy, which in 1988 restored about 25 acres at Brookhurst Street and Pacific Coast Highway into a frequently praised wetlands, had dumped the dirt at the Pacific Coast Highway site last December without city or state Coastal Commission permission.

Conservancy officials said excess dirt was left over from the creation of the wetlands preserve. Removing it did not affect the wetlands.

“The problem is that the conservancy failed to get permission before it dumped the dirt there,” Zelefsky said. The conservancy’s request for a conditional-use permit to build the wildlife hospital did not come before the city Planning Commission until Tuesday night-- eight months after the dirt had been dumped.

Gary Gorman, executive director of the conservancy, told the Planning Commission he had erred in moving the dirt without a permit, but he said he didn’t know a permit was necessary.

“I was not familiar with the development process, not being a developer,” said Gorman, a Long Beach firefighter.

Some of the planning commissioners sharply criticized Gorman and the conservancy, even though all six commissioners ultimately voted for the proposal.

“If a builder rather than an environmental group took the same action and unloaded 4,500 cubic yards of dirt, there would have been such a hue and cry that we would still be hearing it now,” said Planning Commissioner Susan Newman. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

Roy Richardson, acting chairman of the Planning Commission, said before the meeting that he also was “disappointed because this is a group that should know better. They just moved that dirt without ever bothering to get a permit. This is something we jump all over developers for if they’re caught doing this.”

Robert London Moore Jr., an attorney who represents private landowners in the same area of Pacific Coast Highway, sharply criticized the conservancy. He said the environmental group had been high-handed in acting without a permit.

“This is the sort of action the news media would be making a big issue over if a developer had done it,” Moore said.

The Wildlife Recovery Center and Visitor Information Center will be built on property owned by Southern California Edison Co. next to its generating plant. The center will provide the public with information about the wetlands and provide care and rehabilitation for injured wildlife, primarily birds.

On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors issued a license to the conservancy to develop and operate the center. The county’s General Services Agency signed a three-year lease with Edison for the parcel for $400 a year.

Veterinarians from the Alliance for Wildlife will be on site to treat and rehabilitate any injured wildlife brought there. Volunteers from the conservancy will staff the information center.

The Planning Commission granted only a three-year permit for the center because the landowner, Edison, is still negotiating with the city over street development in the area. Gorman said he fully expects the hospital to be permanent.

Earth Moved The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy violated city and state laws by moving dirt from its wetlands site to proposed hospital site.