Wildlife Hospital Project Finally Wins Approval

A three-year battle to build a wildlife hospital on Pacific Coast Highway has cleared its final hurdle.

The California Coastal Commission on Friday approved construction of the 4,810-square-foot facility, expected to open by December.

The $500,000, nonprofit Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center will be one of the largest wildlife hospitals in California, according to the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, sponsors of the project.

Gary Gorman, who is executive director of the Conservancy, said the hospital will feature operating rooms and salt-water ponds used to rehabilitate sea birds.

But Gorman said Saturday that only about $150,000 to $200,000 has been raised from private donations, and he hopes the rest of the needed cash or in-kind contributions of services and equipment will come soon.

“Once people realize that you’re actually building something, they’re more likely to get behind it.”

Gorman’s group proposed the project after an oil tanker spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the ocean off Huntington Beach in 1990, injuring and killing several species of coastal wildlife.

Construction is due to begin next month, Gorman said.

The Huntington Beach Planning Commission approved the project site at Pacific Coast Highway and Newland Street a year ago, even though the conservancy illegally placed 4,590 cubic yards of dirt there without the proper permit.

Gorman said at the time that the conservancy was never told of the need for a permit.

The much-honored conservancy restored about 25 acres of marsh at Brookhurst Street in 1988.