Battle Brewing Over Millions afor Batiquitos Restoration Plan

CARLSBAD —  When the Port of Los Angeles and a private company offered in July to give Batiquitos Lagoon a $15-million face lift, it inspired a spirit of cooperation rarely seen among the myriad parties concerned with the fate of the wide and shallow wetland.

The unusually ambitious proposal, which would enable the port and Pacific Texas Pipeline Co. to compensate for building on tideland in Los Angeles Harbor by paying for improvements at Batiquitos, prompted environmentalists, developers, city officials and state wildlife authorities to set aside their differences and unite to take advantage of the windfall.

But now, just three months later, that harmonious relationship has degenerated into discord. Once linked amicably by the common goal of enhancing the Carlsbad lagoon, the various players in recent weeks have begun firing accusations at one another and fighting for control of the project in a fashion that some say could undermine the restoration effort. Detente, it seems, has ended.

Environmentalists charge that developers are seeking to thwart the ecological purity of the enhancement to meet their aesthetic goals, while property owners planning developments on the lagoon’s shore contend that state officials have so mismanaged the project that Batiquitos’ benefactors may decide to spend their millions elsewhere.

Carlsbad leaders, meanwhile, accuse the state of attempting to steal control of the project from local officials. Led by Councilman Richard Chick, they are lobbying to be put in charge of the lagoon enhancement program, among the largest ever attempted in Southern California.

Moreover, state and federal coastal resource experts working on the enhancement plan say they are stunned by the intense politicking surrounding the Carlsbad project and worry that the power struggle threatens to sour the deal.

“The politics and the assorted personalities stalking the corridors of power on this thing are very real, and they’re not doing the lagoon any good,” said Jack Fancher, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist closely involved with the project. “On the contrary, they are truly confounding the process. In fact I sometimes wonder whether the enhancement project is feasible given the atmosphere we’re working in.”

Bill Dean, past president of the nonprofit Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation, shared a similar view: “For crying out loud, it’s gotten to the point where what’s best for Batiquitos is a distant second to who’s going to be in charge of which aspect of the project. I think the kind of bickering and political positioning we’re seeing is silly and tragic.”

Under the enhancement proposal, port officials and developers of the Texas oil pipeline would meet federal requirements that they compensate for environmentally valuable land lost to their planned projects by paying to restore Batiquitos, which is isolated from the ocean and tends to dry up and smell in the summertime.

The Long Beach-based Pacific Texas Pipeline Co. plans to create a 115-acre landfill at the port to support a terminal for a 1,030-mile pipeline extending to refineries in Midland, Tex. After completion of that project next year, the port will build a 340-acre landfill for its own use. Together, the developments will cost about $300 million.

Normally, the port would “mitigate”--compensate for sensitive land swallowed by development--by creating wetlands of like size within the San Pedro harbor. But areas suitable for such use are becoming ever scarcer, so port officials are proposing to pay their environmental dues in Carlsbad.

That’s good news for those laboring on behalf of the 526-acre Batiquitos Lagoon. While the wetland had long been the object of noble intentions and a multitude of plans, the question of where to find the money needed to get the job done had gone largely unanswered. Suddenly, the port and the pipeline company arrived on the scene--ready and willing to sign a check for $15 million.

“No sooner did the money come forward than all these people--who hadn’t exactly shown a whole lot of interest in Batiquitos in the past--started attending meetings and jumping up and down about the enhancement project,” Dean said. “Suddenly, there was all kinds of shared enthusiasm.”

But before long, the question of who should hold the purse strings emerged, and the mood changed. The often bitter debate over that issue, more than any other, has divided those striving to spruce up the lagoon and has clouded the project in controversy.

The Coastal Conservancy, a state agency, is conducting a $40,000 study of Batiquitos and will recommend several enhancement strategies to a committee formulating plans for the lagoon early next month. Because the agency has conducted similar wetland restoration projects up and down the coast, it initially seemed the logical choice to pilot the project--that is, be empowered to select contractors, disburse funds and assume legal responsibility.

“The Coastal Conservancy exists specifically to do this kind of project, and, unlike the city and the property owners, their interests and values are aligned directly with what is environmentally appropriate for the lagoon,” Dean said. “They should implement the enhancement plan.”

Carlsbad officials, however, disagree vehemently. They argue that, although the lagoon is owned by Hunt Properties Inc., Sammis Properties and the state, it lies within their political boundaries and affects their constituents; therefore, they say, the city deserves to hold the reins.

“Philosophically, this is a Carlsbad lagoon and we feel protective about it,” Councilman Chick said. “It’s discouraging to see these state agencies up in San Francisco and Sacramento deciding the future of Carlsbad property. There’s that old adage: If you don’t exercise your rights, you’ll lose them. So we’re saying stay out.”

City Manager Frank Aleshire agreed and added that he believes that Carlsbad is better qualified to preside over the project.

The conservancy “is an agency based several hundred miles away that has a limited staff, a limited budget and a track record that has not been very good,” he said. The city, on the other hand, supervised the $1.1-million dredging of Buena Vista Lagoon in 1983 and thus has proven it is capable of managing such jobs.

Some local observers and state officials, however, contend that the city botched the Buena Vista project, which included the creation of several islands with the mud and silt dredged from the lagoon. The islands, which have yet to sprout a sprig of grass, appear to be sinking, and critics blame the city’s failure to test the dredged material.

Aleshire said that the city, if awarded responsiblity for the project, would hire a project manager and a team of environmental consultants to assist with the job. In fact, negotiations are under way with one candidate for project manager--Joe Petrillo, who recently resigned as executive director of the Coastal Conservancy.

The city is supported heartily in its position by two landowners proposing major developments near the lagoon--San Diego-based Sammis Properties, which recently won Carlsbad’s approval to build a graduate university just west of Interstate 5, and the billionaire Hunt brothers of Texas, who plan a resort and residential community on the northeastern shore.

D.L. Clemens, vice president and local representative for Hunt Properties Inc., said his company favors Carlsbad control of the project because city officials are already on the scene. He said that planning for the project “has been mismanaged” by the Coastal Conservancy, which has “drug its feet and simply not demonstrated the sense of urgency we feel is necessary.”

Jon Briggs, vice president of Sammis Properties, also expressed dissatisfaction with the state’s performance and added that “it makes sense for the city to do the work because the conservancy is more of a long-range planning body and not as accustomed to doing this kind of job.”

Peter Granell, the Oakland-based conservancy’s new executive director, called that statement “completely untrue. We are not a planning agency, but an agency with a specific mandate to carry out projects to protect and restore the state’s coastal resources. The conservancy is and always has been an implementing agency.”

As for charges that the state has been less than aggressive on the project, Granell said, “That’s absolutely not the case. I, personally, have an extreme sense of urgency on this, and I’ve made it one of three top priorities since I came on here four weeks ago.”

The conservancy chief noted that the agency had accelerated its studies at the lagoon to respond to time pressures expressed by Pacific Texas Pipeline Co. officials, who hope to have a contract for the enhancement project signed by Jan. 1.

In an apparent attempt to calm the waters, Granell added that his agency does “not intend to waltz into Carlsbad and conduct the project without any connection with the city.” Instead, he foresees a “collaborative arrangement, a mutually acceptable division of responsibilities.”

Dean said he and other local environmentalists are reluctant to support Carlsbad’s role as lead agency because of the city’s “track record, which really shows a lack of commitment to preserving the environmental qualities inherent in what is a regional resource.”

He noted that in 1983, after a personal plea by Texan W. Herbert Hunt, Chick and a majority of his council colleagues voted to change the zoning on the lagoon from open space to planned community, a move designed to give the Hunts increased flexibility as they proceeded with development plans.

In addition, Dean said, because Carlsbad officials seemed reluctant to devote staff time to developing land-use guidelines for the lagoon shore, the Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation raised $9,000 for the project and urged that it be done.

The product of that study, the Batiquitos Lagoon Management Plan, proposed relatively stringent guidelines for shoreline developers, guidelines designed to protect the ecological health of the lagoon. But the document was blasted by several council members, including Chick, and was never adopted by the council.

“To me, those actions indicate that Carlsbad believes there are compromises to be made as far as the ecological and aesthetic values of the lagoon,” Dean said. “Frankly, I don’t think the City of Carlsbad has the historical background to say, ‘We’re going to be champions of the lagoon and do a terrific job.’ I don’t think they’ve indicated a degree of responsibility for the lagoon that warrants their being given control of the project.”

Some observers take that argument a step further, contending that local property owners are urging that the city implement the plan because they can expect to exert greater influence over local elected officials than they can over a remote state agency.

“All of these political minefields and hidden agendas, agendas like trying to link (shoreline) developments with what’s best for the lagoon, seem to have raised some suspicion that Carlsbad may believe it can compromise the work or redirect the application of funds,” said Fancher of the Fish and Wildlife Service, which has not endorsed either agency for the lead role.

“The conservancy has a mandate and exists to do these projects, and I don’t believe they are serving any politician’s interests in doing it. The same might not be said of Carlsbad, which is probably more vulnerable to political vagaries.”

Both the developers and city officials dismiss such charges as nonsense, insisting that once an enhancement plan is in place and signed by all parties, it must be followed.

Clemens of Hunt Properties added that such claims are “unfair because what we want is what the city wants, what the agencies want and what the people want, and that is a healthy lagoon with water in it.”

Once the conservancy’s study is completed late this month, a committee of federal, state and city officials, developers and local environmentalists will meet to consider enhancement alternatives--and whether the port’s needs can be met at Batiquitos.

One lingering concern is that to fulfill its mitigation requirements, the port may need to create more deep-water habitat than is appropriate for Batiquitos. The lagoon has a wide expanse of shallow water that attracts numerous shore birds and waterfowl and is considered unique in San Diego County.

Assuming the project is feasible, the committee will then determine which agency will be at the helm of the project.