County Panel to Act Today on Bolsa Chica Proposal : Development: Planning staff’s recommendation calls for up to 3,300 homes, tidal inlet linking wetlands directly to the Pacific.

County planners will today recommend a development plan for the Bolsa Chica wetlands that allows construction of as many as 3,300 homes and requires creation of a tidal inlet connecting the sensitive ecological area to the ocean.

County officials said the plan is a compromise that considers environmentalists’ concerns about wetland restoration and the Koll Real Estate Group’s desire to build homes on prime real estate overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The staff recommendation to the Planning Commission comes after that agency conducted six hearings at which various proposals for the area were examined. If the commission approves the plan at a vote scheduled for today, the issue will go to the County Board of Supervisors for a final vote.

“The idea was to fashion something that would merge all the ideas from the (public hearings) together,” said Ron Tippets, the county’s chief of coastal planning. “The idea is to fashion something that gets the best of everything.”

But the recommendation hasn’t quieted the long-running debate over the wetlands’ future.

The plan was criticized Monday by an official of the Koll Real Estate Group, which wants to build as many as 4,286 homes on the land.

“The county has been very tough on us,” said Lucy Dunn, the company’s senior vice president. “There is no question that our plan is superior and (responds) to the needs of the community.”

Dunn said she isn’t sure whether the project would be financially feasible if the company is allowed to build only 3,330 homes. Construction of the tidal inlet, which Koll proposed as the centerpiece of its wetland restoration plan, is expected to cost $20 million.

County officials said the inlet would run under Pacific Coast Highway into the wetlands area.

The inlet would provide the wetlands with a direct flow of water from the ocean. Currently, ocean water must flow more than four miles from Anaheim Bay, through Huntington Harbour and into the wetlands, Tippets said. It takes about 30 days for fresh ocean water to circulate from Anaheim Bay to the wetlands and back to the ocean again, he said.

The inlet would “provide greatly increased tidal circulation to the Bolsa Chica site,” he said.

Environmentalists Monday praised the inclusion of the inlet in the county’s latest proposal.

“We are extremely supportive of the tidal inlet plan because it will provide a lot of benefits for wetland restoration and the water quality in Huntington Harbour,” said Chuck Smith, president of Amigos de Bolsa Chica, an environmental group.

While some environmentalists would like to see fewer homes built on the land, Smith said the county proposal is a “big step in the process” because it gives the public “a hard number (of homes) they can focus on . . . and decide if they can live with.”

Some environmentalists and nearby residents have said that the Koll plan for 4,286 homes is too intense. Before today’s recommendation, county planners had suggested two alternatives: One called for 3,200 homes, the other 2,500. Neither plan required construction of the tidal inlet.

Other environmentalists oppose any development of the wetlands area.

Tippets said he is not surprised that the discord continues. “There’s probably no compromise plan that will please everyone,” he said.