THE BIXBY BATTLE

City Councilwoman Patty Campbell’s College Park East neighbors have been talking recall since the day she took office as their representative nearly 19 months ago.

With the highly controversial planned development of neighboring Bixby Ranch as the catalyst, the talk has turned to action. In mid-March, the neighborhood’s 3,500 registered voters will go to the polls to vote in the city’s first recall election in more than two decades.

The neighborhood, north of the San Diego Freeway and east of Seal Beach Boulevard, has homes with an average price of $250,000. Residents are proud of their well-maintained streets and schools.

Anxious about any development that will bring traffic and noise to their quiet corner or reduce the value of their property, Campbell’s opponents blame her for the proposed Bixby Ranch development pending with the city, and are unhappy with her representation.

The plan calls for a 25-acre retail complex, a 3,500-seat church--larger than the Crystal Cathedral--and other uses on the east side of Seal Beach Boulevard, north of Lampson Avenue.

Neighbors contend that when Campbell was a planning commissioner in 1995, she helped bury a “mixed-use” plan that would have brought more than 200 homes but only limited commercial development.

Campbell denies burying any plan, saying that when the mixed-use plan was discussed in planning commission public hearings two years ago, residents overwhelmingly opposed the concept.

“The mixed-use plan was turned down by the Planning Commission in 1995,” Campbell said. “We had four public hearings packed with people, and they were against the project 4 to 1.”

The Bixby Co. withdrew the plan before it went to the City Council and told officials it planned to sell the ranch’s three parcels of land, including the beloved Old Ranch Tennis Club owned by Bixby in College Park East.

“What happened was, six months ago Bixby had already withdrawn its application for the mixed-use project,” City Manager Keith Till told a community forum crowded with College Park East residents recently. “They felt it wasn’t viable and they would proceed with the selling of the land . . . piecemeal.”

Till said Bixby officials agreed to suspend negotiations for the piecemeal sale of the property if the city would seriously consider a new development plan.

That plan, unanimously accepted for review recently by the City Council, is what prompted College Park East residents to begin gathering about 1,000 signatures needed to force a recall election against Campbell.

Led by Gordon Trigg, a longtime neighborhood resident, residents began circulating fliers. Neighbors who once chatted amicably while doing Saturday morning chores were now lining up on opposing sides.

Campbell’s opposition, all of whom live in the same small tract as the councilwoman, contend that Campbell and others rejected the mixed-use plan because its residential component didn’t bring revenues into city coffers. Opponents go so far as to refer to the controversial proposal as “Campbell’s all-commercial” plan.

One resident, Dennis Sandler, said during the recent community forum that Campbell was “killing the dang community.”

“Bixby planned residential, but the council stopped it because they want commercial and the tax revenue,” said Cibella Wilenius, a 20-year neighborhood resident and Campbell opponent.

Campbell, 56, a neighborhood resident for 28 years, a property manager and a longtime community leader, is vowing to fight the recall. Her four-year council term, her first, is set to end in 2000.

“This is not my plan. I had nothing to do with it,” Campbell said. She insists she has done nothing other than follow the law and what she thought were the desires of her constituents.

“Change here is inevitable,” she said, “but I want to see the least amount of development possible.”

Not all her neighbors are seeking her ouster.

Donna McGuire, a three-year College Park East resident, said she believes Campbell is doing an “excellent” job, citing her push for a better cable contract and improved garbage pickup service.

“It’s evident she’s always prepared, that’s she’s read all the contracts and always has her ducks in a row,” McGuire said. “I call her a basic grunt worker. She’s not always made popular decisions, but has stuck up for the area.”

College Park East residents will go to the polls to cast their ballots for or against Campbell. If residents support the recall, they will be asked on the same ballot to vote for a yet-to-be-announced replacement candidate.

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NEIGHBORHOODS / College Park East

Bounded by: Seal Beach Boulevard to the west, Lampson Avenue to the north, the Bolsa Chica Flood Control Channel to the east and the San Diego Freeway to the south

Population: About 5,000 residents; approximately 3,500 registered voters

Hot topic: The neighborhood’s City Council representative, Patty Campbell, will face a recall election in March. Neighbors launched the effort in opposition to her perceived position on the controversial Bixby Ranch development proposal