Place Bolsa Chica Buffer at Top of Mesa

For the past 25 years the city of Huntington Beach has been actively involved with the planning for Bolsa Chica. The city’s interest stems from the fact that we entirely surround this unincorporated county island. Regardless of whether Bolsa Chica is ever annexed to the city, future residents of Bolsa Chica will ultimately be served by city of Huntington Beach streets, schools, libraries, playgrounds, recreational programs and medical facilities, as well as police and fire protection. The residents of Huntington Beach have always had a major stake in the way Bolsa Chica is to be planned and legitimate cause to assert themselves in the planning process.

In January 1995, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a plan for the Bolsa Chica that permits 3,300 new housing units. At that time, minimal consideration was given to the needs and desires of the residents of Huntington Beach. We expressed to the Board of Supervisors that the project as proposed would not be consistent with numerous city development standards and would have a significant financial impact on the city’s general fund as identified by two separate studies. In many counties in California a project adjacent to or within a city’s border is considered to be within its sphere of influence. In these counties, critical land-use decisions are left to the elected officials within the affected city.

In an effort to improve upon the Bolsa Chica project for the residents of Huntington Beach, the County of Orange and the state of California, the Huntington Beach City Council, in an unprecedented unanimous vote, decided to transmit seven issues to the California Coastal Commission for consideration. The most important issues deal with the buffer area necessary to separate residential development from wetland habitat areas.

Simply stated, the city would like to see a buffer on the top of the mesa that would include pedestrian and biking trails. Paralleling the buffer would be a realignment of an approved roadway to facilitate the public’s visual access to the wetland. The existing bluff face would be preserved, consistent with the California Coastal Act. The city’s proposed buffer and roadway concept is in sharp contrast to the county’s approved plan. The county intends to completely grade and re-engineer the bluff face. As a result, the back fence of homes will be built on the bluff’s edge. The county’s buffer area would actually be below the bluff within the existing wetlands. The city’s alternative has been endorsed by the Coastal Commission staff and federal Environmental Protection Agency.

It is the city’s hope that the Coastal Commission will recognize that the city’s alternative is environmentally superior and provides a land-use plan that benefits all of the public.

DAVID SULLIVAN

Mayor

VICTOR LEIPZIG

Councilman

Huntington Beach