The Question of Preserving the Bolsa Chica Wetlands?

* The Board of Supervisors approved the Bolsa Chica plan in 1994. Since that time, it has become even more important to our economic well-being to move forward with the Bolsa Chica plan. With the county bankruptcy, the Disney Wescot project scaled back, and El Toro’s future still very uncertain, Orange County desperately needs a large project to stimulate our economy.

I live near Bolsa Chica and I know these wetlands are terribly degraded. I support this project because it will restore the Bolsa Chica, one of the largest remaining coastal wetlands in California, without the use of taxpayer dollars.

Californians for Bolsa Chica support the responsible development of this project and hope it will become a model plan combining the needs of the environment with the needs of our community.

The development agreement implements all of the benefits of the Bolsa Chica Plan and is the final step in seeing this project (funded). I look forward to the final approvals.

ART AVILES

Director, Californians for Bolsa Chica

* (The Supervisors) must amend or deny Development Agreement 95-1, an agreement between the County of Orange and the Signal Bolsa Corp., until the changes in and additions to the agreement as itemized below are made. We are prepared to challenge the agreement in court if it is approved in its present unacceptable form.

Changes include: removal of the provision for an inlet/outlet, a destructive feature; increase in the number of wetland acres to be restored to at least 1,100 acres; increase in the funds escrowed for restoration to at least $70 million; increase in the duration of the agreement to allow for review of restoration success after removal of the oil wells; and reassignment of some costs to Signal Bolsa Corp.

Additions include: guaranteed restoration of 1,100 acres; provision for a 25% contingency fund to redo the restoration if and when it fails--as most restorations do; a three-party instead of two-party agreement or two linked agreements to protect local Huntington Beach taxpayers; indemnification of Huntington Beach for annual losses of $5 million and indemnification of the county for the annual loss of $437,000.

We speak for the majority of the approximately 50,000 Sierra Club voters/members in Orange County and Southern California. There is a better use for this land than housing.

BRUCE MONROE

Spokesman, Sierra Club Preserve

Bolsa Chica Task Force

* On April 18, the Orange County Board of Supervisors will consider the Development Agreement for the Koll Co.’s Bolsa Chica project. Everyone who cares about protecting and restoring Bolsa Chica should actively support this landmark agreement. It is the first and only guarantee we have ever had that these precious wetlands will really be restored. The project has already been approved by the county, but without the development agreement there are no assurances that the benefits promised will actually be delivered.

As a long-term resident of Huntington Beach and vice president of the Bolsa Chica Alliance, I urge the public to contact their supervisors and express their support of the agreement. Better yet, come to the hearing and tell the supervisors, in person, that we need this agreement now!

MIKE GUEST

Huntington Beach

* The citizens of Orange County are in danger of losing one of the last 5% of wetlands left in California to the greed of developers. The Koll Co. proposal to build 3,300 houses on and around the Bolsa Chica wetlands would bring some 10,000 new residents to the area. It would also bring a risk to taxpayers of an annual drain on public funds to provide services to those 10,000 people.

On March 31, The Times reported that the Koll Real Estate Group had a net loss of $18 million in 1994. Now, financially troubled Koll Co. wants to be bailed out by the bankrupt county taxpayers through the approval of this project. The Bolsa Chica property was bought by Koll and zoned for agriculture. They did not buy the right to develop Bolsa Chica. It was pure speculation.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors is urged to have the vision and leadership to save the priceless Bolsa Chica wetlands from development. Bolsa Chica is a valuable jewel that must be preserved.

MARINKA HORACK

Huntington Beach