Council OKs Amended Hellman Ranch Project

With no last-minute debate and before only a handful of residents, the Seal Beach City Council on Monday unanimously approved the exceptionally controversial plan to develop the 231-acre Hellman Ranch.

Mayor Marilyn Hastings and Council member Gwen Forsythe simply shook hands after the vote and quietly thanked the project’s representatives.

It was anticlimactic finish to the often acrimonious decade-long public argument about what to do with the undeveloped triangular-shaped wedge of land that stretches from Seal Beach Boulevard to the east of San Gabriel River Channel between Pacific Coast Highway and Lampson Avenue.

In the end, the Council approved this: 70 large and pricey homes, an 18-hole golf course, and the restoration of wetlands.

Talk of development on the land has stirred deep passions for 16 years and prompted all-night council sessions and the resignations of city officials.

Native Americans have said the site might yield important artifacts, perhaps from an ancient village, and that development would surely ruin any potentially significant archeological finds.

Last March, then-Mayor Forsythe received a rifle cartridge in the mail, prompting speculation that an angry citizen might have been trying to halt the development by intimidating the council. Lee Whittenberg, the city’s development director, also received a bullet.

Authorities are still investigating the incidents.

At one time, a plan was floated to build 773 houses on the parcel. That was later scaled back to 329.

But on a 5-0 vote Monday night, the council finally adopted the far smaller housing proposal.

It still requires approval by the California Coastal Commission before building can begin.