Battle Heats Up Over Last Untouched Coast : Land use: Developers say four projects on Southland’s remaining pristine stretch would add tax revenues and jobs. Environmentalists are joining forces to preserve the area.

This is the Southland’s Big Sur, the final stretch of pristine coastline in Southern California--20 miles of mesa stretching from this oceanfront suburb up the coast to Gaviota.

Still undeveloped--but also unprotected--this swath of shoreline is home to great blue herons, snowy egrets, red foxes and great-horned owls. Rolling fields are carpeted with mustard, lupine and thigh-high grass. Monarch butterflies roost in stands of eucalyptus.

“It really is a national treasure,” said Mark Holmgren, curator of the Vertebrate Museum at UC Santa Barbara. “What makes the area’s unusual ecosystem work is the large amount of open space.”

But this national treasure is also the battleground in a brewing fight between concrete and butterflies. Four proposed developments threaten the crucial stretch. Lawsuits have been filed, hours of testimony given, and today, the California Coastal Commission gets into the act.

At stake, developers say, are millions of dollars in tax revenues and hundreds of construction and service jobs. The question facing the region is how to balance economic growth with environmental preservation.

Eight local organizations plan to join forces during commission hearings in Inglewood to voice their concerns. “This is the first coordinated effort to protect the coast,” said Bob Keats, director of the Haskell’s Beach/Naples Task Force.

Keats is part of a broad grass-roots effort to treat the entire stretch of land as a whole rather than continuing to fight projects piecemeal as they arise--a condominium complex here, golf courses there, a sprinkling of private residences, a resort.

“We finally realized that what really works--whether you’re a tree-hugger or a landowner--is a comprehensive plan that allows for everyone to plan intelligently for the future,” said Chris Lange, head of the 600-member Save Ellwood Shores group.

The embattled turf is nestled between U.S. 101 and the sea, a wide-open space that evokes a postcard image of California, the type of “wish-you-were-here” greeting card sold in the porch-front general stores that dot the coast.

On one side of the space are mesa bluffs that drop 80 feet to the beach. Here seals, dolphins and pelicans forage for food. On the other side are groves of eucalyptus trees, which form some of California’s largest monarch butterfly roosting sites. In winter, the trees are covered with thousands of gold-and-black wings.

The first, and perhaps most controversial, of the four proposed plans would develop Ellwood Beach in Goleta. The plan encompasses 135 acres including rare vernal pools, native grasses, a number of threatened species and a large monarch butterfly roosting site.

Southwest Diversified of Irvine owns the land, where it wants to build 161 homes and condominiums. But over four years, the developer has had to scale back the project twice.

The county’s environmental impact report listed 20 adverse impacts the development would have on the ecosystem. As a result, the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission recommended that supervisors reject the project. But in an unusual move, the County Board of Supervisors approved it last year.

In January, the Coastal Commission denied the county’s plans to proceed with the development, citing, among other reasons, the threat to the fragile ecosystem. Now, the developers may have to scale back their plans again.

“The commission was very restrictive,” said Randy Fox, vice president of Southwest Diversified, which has sued the commission for $50 million. “It takes all 161 units to make this thing work for us financially.”

Farther up the coast is Haskell’s Beach, where Hyatt Corp. has spent nearly $8 million since 1983 trying to build a 400-room resort on a 73-acre site. After 47 public hearings during a five-year span, the developer obtained approval in 1988 to build on the site, which has a monarch butterfly habitat.

But Citizens for Goleta Valley filed three lawsuits against the developer, charging among other things that the $160-million project would harm the environment and that less sensitive areas should be considered for the resort.

One of the lawsuits went to the California Supreme Court, which in January, 1991, ruled that Hyatt could move ahead with its project. But the site remains undeveloped because Hyatt cannot secure financing for the project, spokesman John Tynan said.

“We’re still committed 100%,” he said.

The third project is planned for 202 acres owned by Arco Corp., which operates an oil and gas field that produces an average of 200 barrels of oil a day. Arco has offered to shut down its coastal oil operation prematurely in exchange for permission to develop an 18-hole golf course.

“I can’t think of a better use of the land,” said Whitt Hollis, an Arco spokesman. “I think the projects works out well for everybody.”

The county approved Arco’s conditional use permit request last summer. The approval was immediately appealed. “We believe the fertilizers and chemicals used in the project will harm a seal colony that lives below the cliffs,” said Keats, one who appealed.

The fourth project is planned for a 500-acre parcel that forms the township of Naples, which was created before the county’s current zoning regulations. The Morehart family, which owns the parcel, sued the county for permission to develop residential complexes in an agriculturally zoned area. The case went to the California Supreme Court, and a decision is expected soon.

As the bureaucratic wheels turn, residents along the coast are trying to draw together public and private land interests to save the area. On Saturday, the local chapter of the Audubon Society and UC Santa Barbara are hosting a conference to discuss how to join forces to form a long-range protection plan. One solution: Creating a national seashore park.

Meanwhile, developers continue to push their projects through the pipeline, although the process is an increasingly tangled one.

“I don’t want to use the word frustrating, but anyone who tries to develop here must know it will be a long and expensive process,” Arco’s Hollis said.