Hundreds Protest Bolsa Chica Development

More than 350 people packed a California Coastal Commission meeting in Huntington Beach on Wednesday, saying the Bolsa Chica mesa must be spared from development to protect Orange County’s beaches from further contamination.

“Here we are at ground zero for dirty water,” said Chris Evans, executive director of the Surfrider Foundation, one of several environmental groups that coordinated Wednesday’s demonstration at the meeting, held at the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort. The hotel sits along the same stretch of Huntington Beach closed to swimmers for much of last summer because of mysteriously high bacteria counts.

“We’re going to be here until the last day, until the Bolsa Chica wetlands and the Bolsa Chica mesa are safe from development,” Evans told the 16-member commission. “It’s worth the fight.”

The Coastal Commission already had decided to postpone until November a vote on whether to approve 1,235 homes on the mesa. But faced with the crowd, they went ahead and listened to public comment on the project. The commission originally had been scheduled to vote Wednesday, but staff members said they needed time to meet with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologists before making a recommendation on the proposed development by Hearthside Homes.

Environmental groups have been battling development at Bolsa Chica for decades. The Bolsa Chica Land Trust and other groups sued the commission more than three years ago after it approved plans for a larger version of the housing development that spilled over into more fragile wetlands.

An appeals court, in what was considered a precedent-setting decision last year for protection of wetlands up and down the coast, bounced the proposal back to the Coastal Commission. In the decision the court prohibited destruction of wetlands at the site, and two nearby environmentally sensitive areas.

“This is an issue that is not just important to the people of Huntington Beach,” said Coastal Commission Chairwoman Sara Wan of Malibu. “Coastal protection is critically important to the people of the state for a whole host of reasons. The Bolsa Chica decision is a watershed event.”

On Wednesday, members of the crowd challenged the commission to reject Hearthside Homes’ latest plan.

Lillian Robles, an 83-year-old Native American who lives in Long Beach, is also an elder with Juaneno band of Mission Indians, who have inhabited Orange County for thousands of years.

“I’m appalled by what’s happening,” Robles told the commission. “You speak, but you don’t listen. You look, but you don’t see. Bolsa Chica is the only land we have left. I appeal to you in the name of my ancestors who were here more than 10,000 years ago: Do your job, follow your hearts.”

Joel Sheldon, board member of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, an environmental engineer who lives in Huntington Beach, said the group wants to buy and preserve the mesa.

“We don’t want to be unfair to the developers. We want to give them what they deserve,” Sheldon said. “We also want the mesa to be used as a buffer to help protect the wetlands area. It’s so important that we have a place to chill out, to walk your dog and relax and connect to nature. It’s so important to have a place that is local.”

A spokeswoman for Hearthside Homes could not be reached for comment late in the day.

Times correspondent Chris Ceballos contributed to this report.