HUNTINGTON BEACH : Panel for Wetlands Study to Be Proposed

A city councilwoman says she intends to propose creating a committee to study the politically volatile issue of what to do about the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Councilwoman Linda Moulton-Patterson said in an interview Friday that the purpose of the committee would be to look into “possible funding sources for preservation and restoration of the Bolsa Chica wetlands.” She said she will make the proposal at Monday night’s council meeting.

Moulton-Patterson said the committee might be able to find “a lot of creative solutions that haven’t been thought of yet.”

Proposed development of privately owned land surrounding the state’s Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is the biggest construction issue facing the city.

The Koll Co. has plans pending before the city to build 4,884 homes on the land. The company’s plans stem from a coalition agreement in 1989 that calls for allowing some development around Bolsa Chica in exchange for restoration of most of the degraded wetlands.

The Koll Co. proposal, however, has run into political controversy. One citizens’ group, called CoOp, has said any development should be limited to 1,000 or fewer new homes. Another new citizens’ organization, the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, has called for no new development whatsoever; it seeks to buy the land for a public preserve.

Moulton-Patterson said she thinks the Koll Co. plans call for too many new homes but that her proposal for a new council committee is not to undermine or attack the Koll Co. plan.

“This is simply a way to gather more information,” she said. “This is the most important project that will be coming before the council, and we need to have as much information as possible.”

Lucy Dunn, vice president of the Koll Co., said she sees the creation of a council committee as “a good idea, as long as there is an immediate action plan and not just endless studies.”

Dunn said scientific reports show that the longer the delay in restoring the wetlands, the more harm is done to the land. She said her company has a viable plan and wants to move forward.

“My mission, and my company’s mission, is to save the wetlands,” Dunn said. “You’ve got to have a real plan, a feasible plan. It takes more than a whim or a poem.”