Looking Ahead on Bolsa Chica

As I read Koll Real Estate Group Vice President Lucy Dunn’s vision for Bolsa Chica (Letters, Oct. 6), I was struck by the realization that what is really at stake is reflected in presidential politics. Dunn sees the Bolsa Chica mesa as useless farmland. The Bolsa Chica Land Trust sees a restored, integrated ecosystem accessible to millions of Southern Californians with unbounded educational opportunities for generations to come. Dunn apparently prefers a narrow vision of a “bridge to the past” when the Bolsa Chica needs a “bridge to the future.”

EVAN C. HENRY

Newport Beach

* Oh, I get it. Orange County supervisors change the zoning of the Bolsa Chica wetlands from “agriculture” to “residential.” This greatly enhances the value of this parcel owned by Koll Real Estate Group.

Now, Koll has agreed not to build 900 housing units directly on the wetlands if state and federal agencies buy the land from them, of course at its new recently inflated market value, $25 million.

Guess what? That’s you and me, the dumb taxpayers who will once again fill the developer’s coffers. Thank the politicians whose campaigns are heavily financed by these same developers. You don’t have to go to Denmark to find something rotten. So long as we allow this, we deserve it.

WENDI ROTHMAN

Seal Beach

* Thank you for your recent coverage on Huntington Beach’s local election furor.

I think the wetlands controversy has a lot in common with the bad business climate in my city, and the council was right to spend so much time on defending Bolsa Chica.

This city has been speeding away from citizen issues for decades, in favor of big business and overdevelopment politics, and that has hurt the local business. The business licensing and taxing system truly is anti-business, but this is a city of voice mail where one cannot even get advice from the Fire Department on complying with hazardous chemical codes.

The emphasis in Huntington Beach has been to overbuild, arrange for elite business development, and make the city become like a downtown Long Beach. All is bad for business, destroys the community character, and worst of all, eliminates the human quality of our local government.

The Bolsa Chica [decision] was a refreshing change in our city’s government, and if the remaining city issues are addressed with the same purpose, then the 250 empty shops within a radius of a few miles of my home will put a stop to this overdevelopment and under-representation that affects the citizens and existing businesses so drastically.

RONALD KINUM

Huntington Beach