Koll Turns to County for OK on Bolsa Chica : Development: The builder faced strong opposition from the Huntington Beach council over plans to build thousands of homes around the wetlands.

In an unexpected move, the Koll Co. announced Monday it is asking county government, not this city, to approve its plans for building 4,884 homes around the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

The move means the development company will not have to haggle with the slow-growth majority on the Huntington Beach City Council, which has been cool to the Bolsa Chica development proposals.

Harriett Wieder, currently chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors and supervisor for the Bolsa Chica area, is an outspoken supporter of the Koll Co.’s plans.

“I think the Koll Co. moved its plans to the county because they think they’ll find a more friendly type audience there,” said Jan Vandersloot, vice president of the Bolsa Chica Alliance, which has opposed any development there.

Lucy Dunn, a vice president of the Koll Co., said Monday that the switch from city to county came because “the county has significant experience in processing complex projects.”

Don Koll, chairman of the Koll Co., said: “The county of Orange is highly qualified to handle the enormously complex Bolsa Chica environmental review process. . . . We will look to Supervisor Wieder for strong, steady leadership as the process moves forward.”

Legally, the county has jurisdiction because the Bolsa Chica land is outside the city limits. But the city became the “lead agency” in the planning process because of a verbal agreement made in 1989 by the Bolsa Chica Coalition, said Shirley Dettloff, a member of the environmental group, Amigos de Bolsa Chica.

That coalition, composed of representatives of the Amigos, the landowner as well as state, county and city governments, agreed on guidelines for developing Bolsa Chica, but not on the number of houses that could be built. The coalition agreement came after 20 years of bickering among all sides that had stalled development.

City officials said they cannot veto the shift to county authority, adding that the move also leaves them with no direct control over the development. Environmental groups appeared stunned by the maneuver, but said they would insist on Koll adhering to the coalition agreement.

City Councilman Ralph Bauer said Koll switched to county jurisdiction “because they think they’ll get a better deal from the Board of Supervisors.”

Bauer, who has been very critical of Koll plans, predicted that the city would now drop plans to annex Bolsa Chica, which would mean the development would lack city police, fire or water service.

“They’d be on their own,” Bauer said. “I guess the development could end up like Sunset Beach--a section of the county surrounded by Huntington Beach but with none of our services.”

Dunn said the Koll Co. still “plans to work closely with the city of Huntington Beach,” but she acknowledged that the change to county jurisdiction means that city officials no longer have a vote on the development plans.

The state’s Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve currently consists of about 300 acres of wetlands near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Warner Avenue. The 1989 coalition plan envisioned adding more restored wetlands to the public domain in exchange for allowing landowners around Bolsa Chica to build some homes.

The Koll Co. plans followed the coalition guidelines, Dunn said, adding that the plan provides for donating 775 acres of degraded wetlands to the public. The Koll Co. has said it would restore 400 of those acres, thus more than doubling the existing size of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.

But critics of the plan, including Bauer and members of the Bolsa Chica Alliance, have argued that the environmental price would be too high if Koll got the number of homes it wanted. They said that 4,884 houses would overwhelm the land surrounding the wetlands. Bauer has said he thinks 1,000 or fewer homes should be the maximum.

Bauer is among five of the so-called “environmental activists” on the seven-member City Council. The new majority came together as the result of the 1992 November city election.

After that upset election, there were rumors that the Koll Co. would shift its plans from the city to county jurisdiction. In early January, Dunn denied those rumors, saying Koll planned to continue working with the city.

Under the shift in jurisdiction, the plans would no longer go to the Huntington Beach Planning Commission or its City Council. If the county approves the development plans, they would go to the state Coastal Commission, Dunn said, and then to the Army Corps of Engineers, which has wetlands jurisdiction.

“The (federal) Environmental Protection Agency would become involved only if it disagrees with the Corps of Engineers’ decision,” she said.

Dunn said that other state and federal agencies, including the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, will have advisory roles but do not issue permits required for the proposed development.

Dunn said she hopes the “first dirt can be turned on this project by late 1994.”

Koll Co. Switcheroo The Koll Co. says it will ask Orange County to retain authority over its plan for building 4,884 homes around the Bolsa Chica wetlands. A 1989 agreement among Koll, environmentalists and several public agencies had given that power to the city of Huntington Beach.