For many environmentalists and planners at every level of government, it once seemed that they would grow old and die before the battle of the Bolsa Chica wetlands ended. But a group of property owners, nature lovers, politicians and corporate executives last fall formed the Bolsa Chica Planning Coalition, and they have been working in a new spirit of compromise over the project. Most critically, they do not include a boat channel to the sea.
Many details remain to be worked out.
They include exactly where and how many homes should be built, the number of acres of wetlands that will be restored by reopening them to tidal waters and who will pay for this. But even longtime archenemies in the Bolsa Chica debate feel hopeful about the future of the wetlands. We're getting closer to the end. Today, the Bolsa Chica wetlands amount to a vast oil field dotted by pickleweed and pumping rigs, tank farms and a limited number of restored wetlands. It is here, on these barren 1,600 acres along Pacific Coast Highway south of Warner Avenue, that the war has been waged for 15 years, pitting environmentalists against the primary landowner, Signal Landmark.