Assembly Panel OKs Purchase of Wetlands Mesa

A watered-down version of state Assemblyman Tom Harman’s bill to buy the Bolsa Chica mesa unanimously passed a key legislative committee Tuesday, but without a proposal to use $25 million in state funds for the purchase.

The Assembly’s Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee approved the bill, 12-0. The Huntington Beach Republican’s bill goes next to the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee.

The bill originally earmarked money from the state’s general fund to buy the 230-acre coastal mesa surrounded by Huntington Beach. As amended, it now would require the state Department of Parks and Recreation to meet with landowner Signal Landmark to figure out a purchase price and report back to the Legislature by April 2002.

Given the state’s energy crisis and its growing drain on state funds, Harman said it was unrealistic to propose such a large expenditure at this time, especially without more detailed information from Signal.

“We’re having a tremendous financial crisis here in Sacramento,” he said. “The money is not there this year. Hopefully it will be in future years.”

Though no one specifically told him to amend the bill, Harman said, “we were cautioned by the leadership to curtail expectations for projects of this type.”

Harman aide Dave Weaver said the money could have sunk the bill. “You can’t put a bill in that’s going to request so much money paid by the [state] general fund when you don’t know what the purchase price is. . . . You put a big price tag on a bill, it looks really scary and it’s not going to get out” of committee.

Orange County environmentalists who testified at Tuesday’s hearing in Sacramento were thrilled despite the lack of funding.

“It won unanimous approval because people are on board with it,” said Evan Henry, president of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, an environmental group formed to raise money to buy the mesa. “This is statewide recognition that Bolsa Chica is important.”

Momentum to buy the mesa and halt any development has been growing in recent months. The Huntington Beach City Council recently passed a resolution to seek funding. Harman said he has received indications from Gov. Gray Davis’ office that some money from the state parks bond measure passed last year may be available.

But Lucy Dunn, executive vice president of Hearthside Homes, which manages Signal’s assets, was skeptical.

“The only time we hear about purchase of the property is when we read about it in the paper, because no one has ever approached us,” she said.

Bolsa Chica is a coastal stretch that includes the largest wetlands complex in Southern California and is a key stopover for migrating birds on the Pacific Flyway. More than 1,200 acres of wetlands have been saved in the costliest restoration effort in state history.