Hearing Is Set Jan. 13 on Surfcrest Condos

The California Coastal Commission is scheduled to rule on a controversial development proposal next month, commission officials said Tuesday.

Officials said the commission is set to hear an appeal of the City Council’s approval last summer of the proposed Surfcrest North condominium project near the Bolsa Chica bluffs.

The commission’s meeting will be held Jan. 13 in Santa Monica. State law empowers the Coastal Commission with final jurisdiction over building projects proposed near the coast.

Surfcrest North calls for building 252 condos near the intersection of Palm Avenue and Seapointe Street in the Seacliff Country Club area. The project would be next to land dedicated for the county’s Bolsa Chica Linear Regional Park.

The project twice came before the City Council. On June 1, the council voted 4 to 2 to send the project back to the developer, Urban West Communities, demanding that it be reduced in size.

When the project came back to the council on Aug. 17, it was approved 4 to 2, with Councilwomen Linda Moulton-Patterson and Grace Winchell voting against the development. Winchell said she agreed with Amigos de Bolsa Chica, an environmental group which had charged that Surfcrest North was too dense for the park area.

Winchell, who became mayor Dec. 7, and the environmental group appealed the project to the Coastal Commission.

Adrianne Morrison, executive director of the group, said Tuesday that previous Coastal Commission approval for Surfcrest North allowed high density because some condos were to be low-cost housing. Morrison said that the project, however, no longer has affordable housing, and that the Coastal Commission should therefore require a lowering of the number of units allowed.

Surfcrest North became a campaign issue during the city’s November election. Some candidates, including Dave Sullivan, charged that the former City Council had gone out of its way to accommodate the developer.

Sullivan was elected to the council on Nov. 3 and is now part of the five-member environmental majority on the newly constituted City Council.

In addition to being opposed by the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, Surfcrest North also has drawn criticism from residents of the Huntington Seacliff area.