Supervisors OK Plan for Bolsa Chica Park : Recreation: Vote marks a critical juncture in disputed, long-delayed efforts to create a facility overlooking wetlands and the Pacific.

Capping more than two decades of debate, the County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $4.5-million plan to create a regional park on 106 acres of now largely barren land overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

“We finally made it!” one county official shouted to a colleague after the supervisors gave their unanimous approval to the oft-delayed project.

Since the 1970s, government planners have sought to balance the need for greater public access to Bolsa Chica against both the ecological sensitivity of the area and developers’ demands for more building on nearby land.

Myriad disputes over the size, design and cost of the park have threatened it in past years, and county officials still have no guarantee that they will ever own more than half of the land to be used for the park. But county officials say that Tuesday’s vote marks a critical juncture in efforts to see the plan become reality.

“The real draw of the park will be its location--sitting on the high ground, overlooking the wetlands and the ocean beyond. It’s just a tremendously view-oriented park,” said Robert G. Fisher, director of the county’s Harbors, Beaches and Parks division.

The supervisors approved the preparation of contracts for construction of the first phase of the park’s development, totaling $1.33 million.

The park will feature bike, hiking and equestrian trails, picnic sites, replanted fields and vegetation, and other facilities on the bluffs of Bolsa Chica, linking the oceanfront to Huntington Beach’s existing Central Park.

The site is to be known as the Bolsa Chica Linear Regional Park, and officials say it will be the most ambitious park project on Orange County’s northern coast. County officials say they may be able to break ground by late 1993 or early 1994, and the first phase of the park could be open a few months later.

Adrianne Morrison, executive director of Amigos de Bolsa Chica, which has led the fight to protect the wetlands, applauded the county’s approval of the park plan, but said environmentalists will continue to push for more space.

“We’re fighting for every square inch of this linear park,” she said. “You have here a whole area that families can explore together. . . . And the important thing is that it’s a buffer to the wetlands.”

Huntington Beach Mayor Jim Silva said the park should prove to be worth the frustrations that have come with it. “Future generations will benefit from the actions of the City Council and our Board of Supervisors,” he said.

The city of Huntington Beach shares part of the land, and it has already approved plans for the park. The project must also be approved by the California Coastal Commission, and local officials say they expect that to happen in coming months.

Securing all the land for the park may prove a tougher obstacle, however.

Because of considerations of cost and availability of area land, planners have shrunk the park acreage by more than half since initial proposals in the mid-1970s. And the county has not yet taken title to the biggest chunk of park land--about 52 acres that county officials say they have been promised as part of a deal with the Koll Co.

Over the next two decades, Koll plans to build about 4,900 homes on some 400 acres of land it owns in the Bolsa Chica area. In exchange, Koll is to undertake a $40-million restoration of the wetlands, a natural habitat that ecologists say rivals tropical rain forests in its value to wildlife. More than 90% of California’s salt marshes are already gone, lost primarily to development.

“The park has always been part of the Bolsa Chica plan,” Koll Senior Vice President Lucy Dunn said in an interview. “We’re supportive of the county’s vote . . . and as soon as all the approvals (for development and wetlands restoration) are completed, the parkland will be dedicated.”

That will happen late in 1993 or later, some county officials predict. But others are anxious to take hold of the land sooner.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, a resident of Huntington Beach whose 2nd District includes the parkland, said she does not think the timing of approvals on Koll’s development project should have anything to do with the transfer of the parkland to the county.

Wieder, who has long championed the park plan, said Koll should give the county the parkland as soon as possible, as an act of good faith.

“Koll has a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate to the community the importance of parks . . . and allow us to move ahead with the project,” she said. In any event, Wieder said, she believes the park will become a reality.

And she told her fellow supervisors: “I’m really pleased that we’ve come to this stage. . . . The views are going to be breathless, breathtaking.”

Fisher said only minimal grading will be required in what is generally flat terrain above the wetlands.

In addition to the trails and picnic areas, the general plan for the park that was approved by the supervisors Tuesday also calls for open meadow areas, three children’s play areas, vista points and scattered parking sites for 80 cars.

“The land is barren and very degraded now, because of all the oil production and excavation in the area,” said Mary Murray, the county project manager for the park. “But it can be restored.”

Times staff writer Marla Cone contributed to this report.

Green Link Bolsa Chica Regional Linear Park will connect Central Park to beach