HUNTINGTON BEACH : Bolsa Chica Park to Be Dedicated Feb. 15

Dedication ceremonies will be held Feb. 15 for the long-proposed county regional park near the ocean bluffs and Bolsa Chica wetlands, county officials told the City Council on Monday.

“This day has been a long time coming for me,” County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder told the council. “It’s been almost 12 years of work on this park for me. When I first became a supervisor 12 years ago, there was talk of this park and $2 million was set aside. I’ve had to fight all these years to make sure that $2 million was not spent for something else.”

The new Bolsa Chica Linear Regional Park is so named because of its long, narrow shape. The park will extend from the oceanfront at Pacific Coast Highway north of Golden West Street to the southwestern end of Central Park, in the interior of the city. It will run along the city’s western border, jagging in and out of the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

The plans presented to the City Council call for a park of 113 acres, 24 of those to be donated by the city. Most of the remaining acreage will be given by two landowners in the area, Signal Landmark Properties and the Huntington Beach Co. The companies are donating the land in exchange for permission to develop elsewhere, an arrangement set by state law.

County Parks Director Robert G. Fisher told the council that after much study, the county had decided on a “passive park,” without things such as swings, seesaws and tot-lots. The linear park’s major features will include a pedestrian trail, a bicycle trail, an overlook, and possibly signs or devices to help explain the views from the cliffs to the wetlands below.

Fisher also said the new park may have an equestrian trail if negotiations can be worked out with state agencies which control the adjacent Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Amigos de Bolsa Chica, an environmental organization, has said it fully supports the concept of a county park bordering the wetlands. But the group said it believes that the park needs to be at least 150 acres.