HUNTINGTON BEACH : Coalition Seeks to Save Bunker at Wetlands

A coalition opposed to development at the Bolsa Chica wetlands filed a request Thursday for a preliminary injunction barring the demolition of a historic World War II bunker at the site.

“This really does represent an unusual period in our history,” said Debbie Cook, a lawyer representing the group. “Where else can you go on our coast to see something like this? It’s really quite impressive.”

Lucy Dunn, senior vice president of the Koll Real Estate Group, which plans to build 3,300 homes in the wetlands area, disagreed. While the bunker is indeed historic, she said, it is “already 15% dismantled, covered with graffiti and trash and poses a hazard to our community children.”

“It’s a public nuisance,” she said, adding that the company plans to memorialize the concrete structure’s significance through various public displays.

The bunker, built in 1944 as part of an elaborate coastal defense system, was declared eligible last year for listing in the Register of National Historic Places.

According to the request filed in Orange County Superior Court by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, Gabrielino Shoshone Nation, Huntington Beach Tomorrow and the Sierra Club, the bunker--scheduled for demolition after April 15--should be preserved for its own historic significance and its closeness to an archeological site containing valuable Native American remains.

Dunn discounted the significance of the archeological site, saying that it had already been excavated and the remains reburied by Native Americans at a different location.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for April 14.