Bolsa Chica Wetlands

On the surface, the 30-year battle to save the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach from development appears to be near an end. Herons and stilts, brown pelicans and snails are abundant. Construction crews are working -- not on homes, but on a contoured tidal basin and inlet that will let the ocean flow into the wetland. And a developer's long-ago plan for thousands of homes and private marinas in the marshland has withered to just 349 houses on a mesa far from the water.

Plans to build luxury homes on a mesa overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach won approval Thursday from the California Coastal Commission, ending a 30-year battle that saved the salt marsh from development. Hearthside Homes will build 349 houses and a park on 105 acres overlooking the 1,100-acre Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, which is undergoing a $65-million restoration -- the largest such undertaking in Southern California.

They call this stretch of Pacific Coast Highway from Sunset Beach to Seapoint Avenue the 4,000 Meters. On any given morning, a train of cyclists would sprint the 2 1/2 miles through this corridor -- one of Southern California's most popular pavements for riding.

Marian Allison trudged slowly through the muddy marsh, stopping to pick up a fast food cup and empty potato chip bag and flip them into an oversized garbage sack. "This is so disgusting," said Allison, 71. "It stinks out here and it's gooey. I'm sinking in the mud." Allison could have spent the day tending to the garden at her Fullerton home of 37 years. But she was among dozens who volunteered Saturday to clean up the mess that washed over the Bolsa Chica wetlands during the recent rainstorms.

A plan to build 379 homes on a mesa above the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach stalled Wednesday when the California Coastal Commission raised concerns about the project's environmental impact. Unable to win approval at the commission meeting in San Diego, Hearthside Homes withdrew its application to the agency and vowed to correct potential violations of the state Coastal Act, which regulates development on the coast.

In 1980, the real estate arm of Signal Oil Co. revealed its grand vision for Bolsa Chica, a huge salt marsh in Huntington Beach that was dotted with nodding oil rigs and polluted by urban runoff. Landowner Signal Landmark wanted to build 5,700 homes on 620 acres and commercial development on 252 acres. Private and public marinas with canals leading to a new harbor entrance would round out the project.

After a 30-year fight to save the Bolsa Chica wetlands from development, work began Wednesday on a $65-million project to restore the degraded salt marsh where builders once hoped to construct marinas and thousands of homes. "This marks the end of a lengthy and tedious process, and the beginning of a rebirth," Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said at a groundbreaking ceremony at the Huntington Beach wetland.

Setting the stage for selling a crucial piece of property to the state for inclusion in the environmentally sensitive Bolsa Chica Mesa, the Ocean View School District has declared 15 acres of the mesa it owns as surplus property. The school district, which has owned the land since 1966, had anticipated building an elementary school to accommodate a large development proposed for the mesa area.

A developer has asked the California Coastal Commission to postpone a Thursday hearing on its proposal to build 379 homes on a mesa overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach after the agency's staff recommended the development be rejected. The recommendation could scotch an agreement to sell 103.2 acres of the mesa to the state for conservation, said Raymond Pacini, chief executive officer of California Coastal Communities Inc. in Irvine, which owns the land.

Capping a three-decade battle by environmentalists to preserve the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach, state officials said Wednesday that the owner of a 102-acre parcel next to the marshlands had agreed to sell the land to California for $65 million. The mesa, overlooking Pacific Coast Highway, will be added to the 1,200 acres of publicly owned wetlands that California is restoring.