Hellman Ranch Resolution Due

The buses were to pull out of Orange County shortly after dawn today, headed for Santa Barbara and an emotional showdown over the future of one of Seal Beach’s last remaining pieces of open space.

Two buses were to carry project supporters prepared to tell the California Coastal Commission why it should approve the building of 70 luxury homes, an 18-hole golf course and restored wetlands at Hellman Ranch.

A third bus was to carry Sierra Club members and others adamantly opposed to filling in wetlands to build a golf course--a plan they say runs counter to state law aimed at saving the few remaining pieces of salt marsh and other wetlands along the Southern California coast.

“I think everyone realizes this is a critical moment for wetlands in California,” said Susan Jordan, board member of the League for Coastal Protection, an environmental group.

But at Seal Beach City Hall, officials say the proposal from Hellman Properties LLC is the best they’ve seen for the land near Pacific Coast Highway in northern Seal Beach. They were to car-pool early today to the meeting in Santa Barbara to urge commissioners to give the plan their blessing.

“If they take a big-picture approach to the project, we think they will approve it,” said Dave Bartlett, speaking for Hellman Properties.

Heightening the drama is the commission staff’s unexpected change of heart last month in which it decided the state Coastal Act forbids the filling of wetlands to make way for a golf course. The staff earlier had accepted the golf course with some changes.

With no golf course, the developer says, the project will die--a prospect that makes environmentalists rejoice and city officials wince.

Although the Hellman controversy produced a four-hour public commission hearing in April, today’s meeting starting at 9 a.m. at the Radisson Santa Barbara was expected to be longer and bloodier, with the commission debating late into the day.

“We are in disagreement even more than last time,” said Teresa Henry, district manager at the commission’s Long Beach office.

Central to today’s debate will be whether the state Coastal Act permits the filling of wetlands to construct a golf course.

Southern California has lost as much as 90% of its coastal wetlands, sparking fierce fights over development plans in the areas of remaining wetlands such as Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach and the Ballona wetlands in Los Angeles County.

The commission’s executive director, Peter Douglas, concluded in the revised staff report May 26 that replacing wetlands with a golf course did not mesh with the Coastal Act that controls coastal development in the state.

But Hellman Properties and city officials are counting on the commission to rethink the matter and override its staff, as the panel has in the past on such controversial matters as Bolsa Chica development.

“I hope so. That’s why we’re going,” said Lee Whittenberg, the city’s director of development services, adding he was “shocked and amazed” by the staff’s dramatic turnaround.

“If they want to approve the project,” Whittenberg said, “we believe they’ve been given the tools” by the legal staffs of both the city and the developer to approve the project within the guidelines of the Coastal Act.

The Radisson Santa Barbara is at 1111 E. Cabrillo Blvd. More information is available online at https://www.ceres.ca.gov/ coastalcomm/index.html

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New Course of Action

The California Coastal Commission will consider a development plan for the Hellman Ranch project that includes more than 100 acres designated for a golf course. The plan earlier was approved by the commission, which then reversed its decision when it was criticized for allowing the course to substitute as open space the developer is required to set aside.

Sources: Hellman Properties, California Coastal Commission, Times reports; Researched by PHIL DAVIS / For The Times