Follow Through on Bolsa Chica Pact : * Koll Co., County Should Stick to Sound Wetlands Strategy Conceived by Coalition

The long effort to build a major housing development on acreage that includes the Bolsa Chica wetlands has taken yet another turn: Koll Co. reversed its plan to work primarily with the city of Huntington Beach on developing the project and instead opted to make Orange County the lead regulating agency.

The Koll Co., of course, has a right to do this; the 1,700-acre site is in an unincorporated area of the county, although it is contingent to Huntington Beach. But it made better sense for the company to work with the city, which planned to annex the area and could have provided residents with municipal services most easily. Annexation also would have allowed the city to plan better for the impact of adding 4,884 homes--and 15,000 new residents--to the area.

But even more important, the unilateral move by Koll Co. to ask Orange County rather than Huntington Beach to be lead regulating agency could undermine a milestone 1989 agreement with a coalition that included the developer, environmentalists and governmental agencies.

The agreement reached after two decades of wrangling established general guidelines for developing Bolsa Chica, although many steps of approval are actually needed to implement the plan. Among the agreements is that the developer can build up to 5,700 homes on the site in exchange for donating to the public about 800 acres at Bolsa Chica and paying $40 million to create or enhance wetlands on 387 of those acres. There was a verbal agreement that Huntington Beach would be the lead regulating agency.

Those who have been long involved with Bolsa Chica believe that the Koll Co. is turning to the county because it believes the Board of Supervisors is more friendly toward developers than the city. In this, they may be right. The seven-member Huntington Beach City Council for the first time in many years is ruled by a slow-growth majority. Five members are also active in Amigos de Bolsa Chica, an environmental group and major party to the coalition agreement.

The process of bringing the Bolsa Chica project into reality has been painstakingly slow, and it is understandable that the developer is frustrated with the pace. But the magnitude of the project and the ecological sensitivity of the area demands extremely careful planning.

Unfortunately, one of the most important parties in the process is no longer a player. Now it’s up to the Board of Supervisors to stick to the terms already worked out by the coalition.