City Rejects Suit Against Bolsa Chica Development : Land use: Huntington Beach council turns aside citizen demands, votes 5 to 2 not to fight wetlands housing project in court.

The City Council on Monday rejected a proposal that it file a lawsuit challenging the development of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, despite the angry pleas of a number of residents.

“I’m disappointed,” said Councilman Ralph Bauer, who had proposed the lawsuit during an executive session. “To think that it can be resolved by talking is utter nonsense.”

Councilman Peter Green, who said he voted against Bauer’s motion because of the cost of a lawsuit, said, “We had little chance of winning.” The vote was 5 to 2.

A large audience had gathered at the Huntington Beach City Council meeting to demand action following last week’s Board of Supervisors’ approval of a project calling for the construction of 3,300 homes in and around the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

“We’d like the city to do something,” said Bruce Monroe, a spokesman for the Sierra Club. The county based its decision, he said, on information that was “incomplete, misleading, inaccurate and it caused the supervisors to pass something that will cause environmental damage to the ecosystem and financial loss to the city.”

Jan Vandersloot, a member of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, which has led opposition to the project, said that “if the county bond fiasco is a nightmare, the Bolsa Chica plan is worse than a nightmare.”

In exchange for permission to complete the project, which still must be approved by the California Coastal Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers, the Koll Real Estate Group has agreed to spend about $48 million to restore 950 acres of deteriorating wetlands on the 1,600-acre site by, among other things, constructing a full tidal inlet reconnecting the marshland to the ocean.

Both the Koll group, which is planning the project, and the county have said repeatedly that the proposed project is legal and that they are willing to negotiate with the city and other affected entities on how to reduce or eliminate costs.

But city officials say that the project will cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in added services, with no relief in sight.

An internal financial analysis developed by the city earlier this year estimated that the Koll project could cost the city as much as $60.8 million initially and $5 million a year thereafter. Because Bolsa Chica is not within city limits, Bauer said, the city will not receive any of the development fees associated with the project. But, because of its proximity to the city, the councilman said, Huntington Beach will undoubtedly be required to provide such services as fire and police protection, road improvement and water.

“The county is basically telling the people of Huntington Beach to go jump in the lake,” Bauer said last week.

On Monday, some responded with a similar message to the Koll group and the county.

“Sue the pants off them,” said resident Jackie Geier-Lahti. Times correspondent Debra Cano contributed to this story.