SEAL BEACH

City officials are confident in their defense of a lawsuit filed by Los Alamitos over the Bixby Ranch project. The suit contends the Seal Beach City Council violated environmental laws when it changed the project at the last minute without, as the action claims, adequately studying the environmental impact.

Seal Beach officials, however, say the change had been studied as one of several alternatives in the project’s environmental impact report. “The city just spent well over a year in one of the most complete and thorough environmental reviews you’ll ever see for this kind of a project,” City Manager Keith Till said.

Councilman Shawn Boyd said he believes the suit may be motivated more by jealousy, in that Los Alamitos will not get the sales-tax revenue from the project, than by environmental and traffic concerns.

If Los Alamitos can “slow the project down and make retailers wary,” the business owners “might pull out and look to Los Alamitos as an alternate,” Boyd said.