500 Pack City Hall for Debate on Wetlands’ Future : Development: Passion flares on both sides of housing project with restoration pledge. County has refused to hold hearings.

An estimated 500 residents Monday night converged on City Hall, expressing deeply divided and often emotional views about the proposed development of the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

“This is a blueprint for the destruction of the entire Bolsa Chica,” said Dave Hall, a local environmentalist. “Overall, it’s a bad project.”

But Cecil Birnbaum, a local designer, countered: “There’s a silent majority that supports (this project). Bolsa Chica is not an endangered jewel, it’s an oil field.”

Under discussion is a plan by the Koll Real Estate group, owner of the wetlands, to build 4,286 homes on 400 acres in exchange for a promise to spend $48 million on restoring 1,100 acres of wetlands.

City officials scheduled Monday’s public hearing after becoming angry at the county’s refusal to hold its own hearings on the recently released draft environmental impact report on the project.

County officials have defended their action, saying it would be practically impossible to respond to each comment in a public hearing. Instead, they said parties have until Feb. 18 to submit their written responses to the EIR, after which hearings will be scheduled in May.

More than 70 speakers rose to express their views about the project, often evoking either cheers or jeers from the audience.

Dick Lagrue--a spokesman for the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, which opposes the project--left a basket of lemons next to the podium, telling City Council members, “We’d like to show you that Orange County has presented you a lemon of an EIR.”

Vera Rocha, a Native American, said she was outraged that the recent discovery of 8,000-year-old Indian remains at the site wasn’t mentioned in the environmental report.

“The area is very precious to Native American people,” she said. “ . . . It was part of what Mother Nature gave us. You’re destroying a land that should be left alone.”

However, there were strongly opposing opinions.

Pam Julien, president of the Bolsa Chica Alliance, pointed out that without the development, there would be no funds to preserve the wetlands.

“Just where’s the money going to come from (for restoration)? It’s time we get realistic. We have an opportunity to create the largest restored wetlands in the state,” she said.

The most recent dispute over the project came last week, when opponents charged that the Koll Real Estate Group and its private archeologist withheld information on the discovery of ancient bones. Koll officials and the archeologist denied the claim.

According to anthropologists, the discovery of human bones at the site has potential significance to both scientists and Native Americans interested in retaining their culture.