Cypress Council Hears Plan for Piping Water to Bolsa Chica Homes

Weeks after a stunning defeat by the California Coastal Commission, plans for development of Bolsa Chica are inching forward on one front.

While Hearthside Homes is still weighing its legal options, Southern California Water Co. held a public briefing Monday night in Cypress on a $4.5-million, 6.8-mile pipeline that would provide water for a 1,235-home development above the wetlands near Huntington Beach.

Hearthside Senior Vice President Lucy Dunn said the project is far from a done deal--the company is still considering suing the Coastal Commission for dramatically scaling back the size of the project, for instance.

Last month, the commission approved construction of the 1,235 homes on about 60 acres instead of the 183 acres that the company wants to build on.

Dunn said neither she nor anyone else at the company knew about the briefing but said it was “just a public workshop”.

Huntington Beach, which is closest to Bolsa Chica, has long expressed reluctance to supply water for the project. A key reason is that the city is concerned about the overall costs of providing police, fire and other services as well.

“In those discussions, the hammer that we have is water. So we’ve held back on that until the other matters are resolved,” said Dave Sullivan, a former mayor and city councilman who stepped down Dec. 4 because of term limits.

Pat Scanlon, Southern California Water’s district manager in Orange County, said he set up the workshop to inform the Cypress City Council about the project and to allay fears that the pipeline would affect the supply of water for its residents and the rates they pay. The pipeline would transport 500 gallons of water per minute. Each household in the project is projected to use 17,250 gallons of water per month.

The privately held utility serves 41,000 homes and businesses in northern Orange County.

The new pipeline, which will go through Cypress, Westminster, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach, has already been approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The water company must also seek permits from the four cities to build the 18-inch-diameter line. Scanlon said it is up to the developer to give his company the signal to seek the permits.

The toughest hurdle could be the Huntington Beach City Council, which includes some members dead set against development at Bolsa Chica.

The Huntington Beach council cannot use the water pipeline issue as a back-door way to halt the entire development, Dunn said.

“Based on the track record of the city, I wouldn’t expect it to be easy,” Dunn said. “But there are certain legal protections for us that would probably result in us eventually having our pipeline in.”

Newly elected Huntington Beach Councilwoman and Hearthside foe Debbie Cook questioned how the developer could obtain $4.5 million in financing to bring water to so few homes.

Cook opposes the annexation of the development by the city, which would allow the developer to use much cheaper Huntington Beach water instead of building the pipeline.

Cook and others charge that Hearthside tried to defeat her and another Bolsa Chica opponent in November’s council race. Hearthside contributed $75,000 to the Voter Education Project, which sent out mailers on a number of state and local issues in the November elections.

While Hearthside officials said they had no control over the content, four mailers sent to Huntington Beach voters labeled Cook and another candidate who have fought to preserve Bolsa Chica “radical anti-business interests” and “liberals.”

Times staff writer Deborah Schoch and correspondent Alex Murashko contributed to this report.