Wetlands Dealings Questioned

* The Coastal Commission hearing in Del Mar (“Coast Panel OKs Reduced Plan for Bolsa Chica,” Oct. 10) was a travesty of justice.

A federal judge had sent the Bolsa Chica project of the Koll Company back to the commission to be looked at in its entirety. The lawyers for Koll and the Coastal Commission limited the public hearing to two topics. The two topics were no houses on the wetlands and not filling in Warner Pond. These were two of five items that the lawsuit brought by environmental and Native American groups had originally filed. These two were remanded by the judge and all five items were returned to the Coastal Commission to be approved or disapproved.

As one speaker said, “The commission said you can ride a horse and then gave them a dead horse.” The two items were already adjudicated behind closed doors before the hearing started. The other three items (eucalyptus grove, adequate buffers and archeological concerns) were not allowed to be discussed. The 40-plus pro-environment speakers were denied the right to speak on anything but the two (dead) items.

The environmentalists wanted the land use plan for properties within the coastal zone denied and wanted the Coastal Commission to instruct the county to write a new plan due to the fact that the project is no longer a restoration project.

The environmentalists filed a new appeal on the 10th.

Hope springs eternal. Maybe, just maybe, truth will out this time.

EILEEN MURPHY

Huntington Beach

* In your article “Koll Memo Refers to Building Assurances,” (Oct. 11) Lucy Dunn shames the land trust for blowing the whistle on her obtaining mesa-development assurances at Bolsa Chica from state and federal agencies. These assurances were negotiated outside the public planning process and months before this process was finished. Let’s put the shame where it belongs. Shame on Ms. Dunn, shame on the Koll Co. and shame on the state and federal bureaucrats who participated in this back-room deal.

Assurances worked out months before the recent California Coastal Commission meeting made a mockery of the public planning process. Deals like this, made behind the back of the public, cause the cynicism and apathy we see today in our “participatory democracy.” If the outcome has been pre-determined in advance behind closed doors, why should the public believe our voice matters at all?

CONNIE BOARDMAN

Huntington Beach

* The Bolsa Chica wetlands should be saved from development by the Koll Real Estate Group. If Koll is allowed to disrupt this bird- and fish-breeding sanctuary, our children and their environment will be the ultimate losers.

JOSEPH PALMER

Seal Beach