HUNTINGTON BEACH : U.S., 2 Ports Weigh Wetlands Restoration

Department of Interior representatives have been meeting with officials from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to seek an agreement allowing port money to help restore the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Under the agreement being discussed, the ports would provide an unspecified sum so the state could buy and restore up to 900 acres of the 1,100-acre wetland area off Pacific Coast Highway. In exchange, the ports would be allowed to expand by filling in portions of the ocean.

“We have worked with these two ports for a long time in helping them define mitigation opportunities,” said Jack Fancher, an assistant field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who has attended some of the meetings.

Under the potential agreement, the Koll Real Estate Group--which owns the Bolsa Chica land and has proposed building 3,300 homes on it--would go ahead with the construction of about 2,500 homes on the Bolsa Chica mesa but would drop an additional 900 homes proposed for the adjacent lowland area.

The company’s existing plan is expected to be considered by the county Board of Supervisors next week.

“We’ve been meeting,” said Ralph Appy, assistant director of environmental management for the Port of Los Angeles, “but we have nothing concrete in front of us at all. We’ve just met and talked generalities.”

Notably absent from the talks has been a representative of Koll. “I don’t know what to think,” Lucy Dunn, the company’s senior vice president, said Friday. “There have been no offers. Nothing is on the table. We will evaluate any offer, but there is no guarantee that an offer could result in a purchase.”