City Won’t Challenge Coastal Commission

After a public debate, the City Council voted Monday not to take legal action challenging the California Coastal Commission’s approval of plans for a housing development on the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Filing a lawsuit to contest the decision would be a waste of taxpayers’ money, said Councilman Dave Garofalo, a staunch supporter of the Bolsa Chica project, after the vote. “If we sued and won, we’d keep Koll from spending $48 million to restore the wetlands.”

Koll Real Estate Group won approval Jan. 11 from the Coastal Commission to build 3,300 homes at Bolsa Chica. The plans call for 2,400 homes on the mesa, as many as 900 homes on the lowlands and a wetlands restoration.

A number of environmental groups as well as some council members have expressed the view that the state panel violated the Coastal Act by allowing houses to be built on the wetlands. Environmental groups have vowed to file a lawsuit.

“The Coastal Act has been broken, and we’re sitting by and letting it happen,” said Mayor Dave Sullivan, an advocate of legal action by the city.

In a compromise, the council narrowly approved a resolution to support legal action taken by other groups.

The resolution does not include giving money for such action but does offer city staff support, the level of which would be determined by City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga and then approved by the council.

“We salvaged something,” said Councilman Ralph H. Bauer, who had favored filing a lawsuit. The compromise, he said, “preserves some semblance of leadership on behalf of the City Council.”

Sullivan voted against the motion, saying that although its intention is good, “it’s just a sham. It gives a refuge for scoundrels--for people to give the appearance they’re doing something.”

Separately, the council agreed unanimously to continue negotiations with Koll officials on the financial effects of the project on Huntington Beach.