HUNTINGTON BEACH : Mayor Wants City to Control Koll Project

Mayor Grace Winchell has written the five Orange County supervisors, urging them to hand back to the city control over a development near the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

In March, the Koll Co. asked that control over its proposed development be transferred from the city to the county, and the county agreed to that.

The development is in unincorporated county territory but is surrounded by the Huntington Beach city limits. Under a previous agreement, the company had asked the city to be the lead agency in overseeing its major housing development.

In her Monday letter, Winchell said the city should be the lead agency in the planning process because it will be providing police, fire and other services once the project is built. The Koll Co. has proposed to build 4,884 homes around the wetlands south of Warner Avenue, adjacent to Pacific Coast Highway.

“Every aspect of (the new residents’) lives will have to be assimilated into our system,” she said.

The move to the county jurisdiction was seen by many as a way to avoid haggling with the slow-growth majority on the City Council.

Councilman Ralph Bauer said the Koll Co. felt it could get a better deal, perhaps build even more homes, by dealing with the supervisors instead of the City Council.

Lucy Dunn, senior vice president of Koll Co., said Monday that she is requesting an opinion from the state Office of Planning and Research on who should have jurisdiction.

Dunn has said previously that the county is better equipped to deal with complexities of wetlands restoration, and noted that the plan has been before the city for three years without progress.

Critics of the plan, however, contend that it has stalled because an environmental impact report has been termed inadequate, and revisions have been ordered.