Koll Agrees to Sell 75% of Wetlands Site : Deal Involves Seaports Buying Land in Trade for Mitigation Credits

After 20 years of heated debate and delicate negotiation, a proposed agreement to buy a large chunk of the Bolsa Chica wetlands from housing-minded developers was unveiled Friday by local, state and federal agencies.

Officials of the Port of Long Beach announced that they have agreed, along with the Port of Los Angeles, to pay nearly $62 million to the Koll Real Estate Group for about 75% of the hotly disputed Bolsa Chica wetlands, California’s largest unprotected stretch of coastal wetlands south of San Francisco.

Bolsa Chica, adjacent to Huntington Beach and beside Pacific Coast Highway, has long been the focus of bitter contention between pro-development forces and environmentalists.

Now, both sides of the battle are intimating that a truce is in the offing.

“There’s no question about it,” said Lucy Dunn, senior vice president for Koll. “This is a big story.”

Under the complex proposal, 930 acres of Koll’s coveted 1,200-acre parcel would be restored by the California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency that underwrites efforts to restore and protect the coastal environment. Funds for the project would be disbursed from an escrow account belonging to the conservancy.

The federal government--specifically, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service--would hold title to the property and be responsible for the land’s maintenance.

For agreeing to purchase and restore the wetlands from Koll, the two ports would receive vital federal mitigation credits that could be used to satisfy environmental requirements for future expansion and landfill projects.

The Board of Harbor Commissioners for the Port of Long Beach will formally consider the proposed agreement at its meeting Monday night, and the Port of Los Angeles board will consider it Wednesday night.

The plan must still be approved by state and federal officials and, finally, by Koll.

Still, environmental groups on Friday praised the outline of the proposal and expressed guarded hope that it marked the beginning of the end of the Bolsa Chica dispute.

“I think it’s an important first step in acquiring the entire 1,700-acre ecosystem,” said Connie Boardman, president of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. “I don’t think we’re going to stop here.”

Bruce Monroe, head of the Sierra Club’s Preserve Bolsa Chica Task Force, said in a statement that Friday’s announcement was the beginning of the end of plans to develop the wetlands.

“Task Force leaders are now focusing on the next task at hand, acquiring the Bolsa Chica mesa so that plans for a dense development there are halted,” Monroe said.

But Koll executives noted that the agreement amounts to a reduction of only 800 homes in their development plans.

They cautioned that they will never sell the land unless several conditions are met, including “satisfactory approval of [the company’s] 2,500-home development on the Bolsa Chica mesa by the California Coastal Commission.”

The statement continued: “Given the extent and contingencies to finalizing the potential transaction, there can be no assurance that any transaction will be completed.”

Dunn said that until the agreement is final, Koll will continue to seek approval from the California Coastal Commission for the company’s original plan to build 3,300 homes on the Bolsa Chica mesa, a plan that was approved by the County Board of Supervisors last December.

“No matter what happens,” she said, “the public wins.”

Boardman, however, insisted that Koll is employing a bit of spin control.

“That may be what they’re saying publicly,” she said. “But I believe if the Land Trust, or any other entity, could come up with cash, they would sell. I don’t see the building of 2,500 homes up there as inevitable at all.”

Besides the two ports, the agreement is expected to be signed in the coming days by the California Department of Fish and Game, the State Coastal Conservancy, the California Resources Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I think it’s a big deal,” said Yvonne Avila, a spokeswoman for the Port of Long Beach. “The Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles desperately need mitigation credits to grow, and the state and federal agencies want Bolsa Chica wetlands to be restored and expanded, and this indeed is a win-win for both groups.”

Avila said officials in both ports were aware that some pending issues may scuttle the deal, particularly negotiations over the number of mitigation credits the two ports would earn for the purchase.

But she added that most people knowledgeable about the agreement were confident that it would be approved.

“I would say we are closer rather than farther,” she said.