Wildlife Hospital Plan Wins Council Approval : Conservation: Project still needs coastal panel’s OK. Development firm that owns adjacent land had objected.

A proposed wildlife hospital for wounded birds and wetlands animals won approval Monday night from the City Council. The project, to be built at the junction of Pacific Coast Highway and Newland Street, now must win final approval from the state Coastal Commission.

Officials of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, which plans to build the wildlife hospital, expressed optimism Monday night that the state agency will approve the project. If that happens, the wildlife hospital could be open by next March.

The council voted 6 to 1 to uphold the Planning Commission’s approval of the wildlife hospital. Councilman Jack Kelly cast the only dissenting vote.

“There is a serious need for such a center along the California coast,” said Councilman Peter M. Green, expressing the majority view of the council. “This venture is an ideal we should achieve in other areas.”

Hugh Hewitt, an attorney representing a company which owns land next to the wildlife hospital site, had appealed the Planning Commission’s approval of the project. Hewitt charged that the animal hospital would cause drainage problems for the nearby land, which is owned by the Coastal Magnolia Group.

During a public hearing Monday night before the council vote, Bob Nastase, managing general partner for Coastal Magnolia Group, accused the city of showing favoritism to the animal hospital project. He said similar projects in the past have been required to set up pumping systems to handle drainage.

But city staff told the council that the project includes plans for proper drainage. The staff report urged the council to deny Hewitt’s appeal.

The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy came under attack earlier this year because its officials allowed 4,590 cubic yards of fill dirt to be moved to the wildlife hospital site, in preparation for development, without first getting state and local permission.

The hospital location is on state-protected land that once was wetlands. Permits are required from both the city and state before any land may be filled or excavated.

Gary Gorman, executive director of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, told the Planning Commission on Aug. 4 that he had allowed the fill dirt to be moved because he simply did not know that permits were needed.

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

Times staff writer Robert Barker contributed to this story.