Suit Challenges Bolsa Chica Development OK

Asserting that coastal protection laws are being ignored, five environmental and community groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission in hope of staving off development on the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

The suit maintains that commissioners who are supposed to protect the coastline instead violated the state Coastal Act when they voted Jan. 11 to permit the construction of 3,300 homes on and around the ecologically rich wetlands next to Huntington Beach.

Ralph Faust, the commission’s chief counsel, said Wednesday that he could not comment on the lawsuit because he had not seen it, and that the commission will refer the matter to the state attorney general’s office, which will represent the commission.

Project critics contend that the vote sets a dangerous precedent for wetlands up and down the coast at a time when California has already lost 91% of its wetlands. In the suit, they are asking the court to set aside commission approval of the long-debated Koll Real Estate Group project.

A Koll spokeswoman took issue with the groups’ claims that the commissioners’ 8-3 vote violated the Coastal Act.

“That’s the same mantra the groups chanted after the Coastal [Commission] approval,” said Lucy Dunn, the Koll group’s senior vice president. “There are numerous precedents up and down the California coast to support the Coastal Commission’s position.”

The commission based its vote on a belief that the project does conform with the Coastal Act, said Chuck Damm, south coast district director for the commission.

The Koll plan calls for building 900 homes in the wetlands area and another 2,400 homes on a mesa to the north. In exchange for development on some wetlands, Koll has designed a $48-million restoration plan for the remaining wetlands.

The prospect of building at Bolsa Chica has long stirred debate, and intense lobbying by both proponents and critics led up to the commission vote nearly two months ago approving the project.

The suit attempting to overturn that decision was filed in Superior Court in San Francisco, where the Coastal Commission is headquartered.

Joining in the suit are the Sierra Club, Bolsa Chica Land Trust, Huntington Beach Tomorrow, the Shoshone-Gabrielino Nation and the Surfrider Foundation.

They announced the news Wednesday morning atop a bluff next to the rain-soaked expanse of pools and oil pumps that is ranked as the single largest unprotected coastal wetlands south of San Francisco.

“It’s an approval that cannot and will not stand,” said Jan Vandersloot, vice president of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, an environmental group opposed to the Koll project. “No one who is a friend of wetlands can support the Coastal Commission action.”

Marcia Hanscom, representing the Sierra Club, said the national organization is joining the lawsuit “in protest of a puppet Coastal Commission that refuses to uphold the law.”

To date, the Koll plan has passed two important hurdles, the 1994 approval by the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the Coastal Commission.

It still needs to be reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers, which is currently drawing up a draft environmental impact report.

In defense of the Coastal Commission action, Koll’s Dunn said the state Department of Fish and Game has classified Bolsa Chica as a degraded wetland.

In order to achieve restoration of degraded wetlands, the Coastal Act does allow disturbing a portion of wetlands under certain circumstances. However, the Coastal Commission staff had recommended against building homes on the Bolsa Chica wetlands--a move applauded by environmentalists.

In another wrinkle, federal and state officials have been talking with Koll about purchasing the wetlands to create a public wildlife reserve.

But no agreement has been reached to date, according to some involved in the talks.