Permit Is Issued for Hellman Ranch Plan

The California Coastal Commission approved a permit Tuesday for a 70-home gated community on Hellman Ranch in Seal Beach, a site so controversial for two decades that local leaders once received death threats over proposed development there.

But the approval came only after a rancorous discussion in which representatives for developer Hellman Properties LLC derided a commission proposal that the individual homeowners be required to landscape with only plants native to Southern California. The commission backed down on the proposal.

The vote represents the final hurdle for the project. Construction is expected to start in January.

“I’m glad the vote was unanimous,” said Jerry Tone, principal of Hellman Properties, after the meeting.

But during the meeting, Tone’s comments were far angrier as he lambasted a recommendation from the commission’s staff to allow nothing but plants native to the region in the development.

While it is common to ban invasive plants that could cause environmental damage, such a sweeping rule on landscaping is unusual.

“Property owners can’t even plant a rose bush or a tomato” under that recommendation, he complained.

Commissioners agreed, deciding instead not to allow invasive plants. They also backed down on holding power over the palette of colors in which each house would be painted, settling instead for a general agreement that they all would be in earth tones.

In the end, the commission, meeting in downtown Los Angeles, voted 7 to 0 to approve the upscale community on 18 acres of a 196-acre undeveloped parcel near the San Gabriel River. The project also will add parking signs and trails to the existing 15-acre Gum Grove Park.

The state panel already approved a subdivision plan for this project in October 2000 after the developer made major concessions, agreeing not to build a golf course on coastal wetlands and offering to sell another tract of wetlands to the state once oil operations are complete.

These compromises placated local activists who had sued over development plans.

The project came before the commission again Tuesday to work out minor concerns before the agency would issue a coastal development permit.

During the meeting, Tone praised his company’s concessions.

“When all is said and done, 90% of our property--90%--will be owned by the public,” he said.

Tuesday’s action caps a long and twisting history of attempts to develop Hellman Ranch, which has been in the Hellman family since the 1880s. Plans promoted by various developers have been dramatically downsized, from an original attempt to build 1,000 multiple- and single-family homes to the current 70 dwellings.

In 1997, several city officials revealed that they had received bullets in the mail, prompting an FBI investigation. Similar mailings were made to officials tied to Bolsa Chica and Newport Beach projects; all parcels were thought to contain Native American remains.

Six years earlier, Seal Beach voters rejected a much more ambitious development plan, defeating the project’s advocates, who were backed by the Mola Development Corp. and who outspent the opposition 20 to 1.