Hitchcock case sent to state Coastal Commission

The staff for the Long Beach Planning Commission has abruptly put the controversial Los Cerritos Wetlands habitat buffer grading case into the lap of the state Coastal Commission.

The Planning Commission approved a special permit on Dec. 3 for the capping of a Los Cerritos Wetlands habitat area. However, the commission added the requirement that the area be restored with plants and trees.

 The unanimous vote included instructions to the city staff to outline options on the level of restoration.

Commissioner Donita Van Horik made the motion to require the restoration.

"At this point, we need to say, 'Enough is enough!"' she said.

Environmentalists had appealed a September ruling by a city zoning administrator approving a permit to cap the site at Loynes Drive and Studebaker Road.

They pushed for the restoration of the former landfill site, contending it's an important part of the wetlands' sensitive habitat. They also believe that a heavy fine should be slapped on Sean Hitchcock, owner-president of 2H Properties in Signal Hill, who sharply criticized in March by wetlands environmentalists for grading the site.

 Hitchcock has been seeking approval to import about 1,000 cubic yards of soil to re-establish and maintain the cap over the graded area - work that had already been completed before the Planning Commission hearing.

Attorney Mel Nutter, a former Coastal Commission chairman, Tuesday said he believes the planning staff move will not really get Hitchcock off the hook.

"It's a political can of worms that they want to deal with anymore," he added.

The permit request is, in part, a response to a California Coastal Commission emergency permit to restore the buffer.

Hitchcock fueled the debate in June, when he released a study that he had commissioned that found that the graded site is not part of the wetlands ecosystem.

Ty Garrison, senior biologist for the Pasadena-based SWCA Environmental Consultants, said in his 13-page report that site has been mainly a landfill.

"At present, the ground elevation of the site is approximately 16 to 20 feet above the natural marsh that was present at the location until the 1940s," he noted in the study.

Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust board members have recruited several biologists who dispute Garrison's report.

 Hitchcock's 2H Construction crews graded off the upper layer of the landfill cap that was previously placed on top of the site to control odors and cover any exposed refuse.

At the time of the grading, City Manager Pat West halted heavy earthmovers from spreading a mound of asphalt apparently meant to pave a section that was just graded.

Coastal Commission officials have said they would seek restoration of the destroyed habitat.

At the Dec. 3 meeting, the Planning Commission members asked their staff to come back to them with a remediation plan for the parcel.

The requirement for a remediation plan was a condition of the Planning Commission's approval of a retroactive permit for the capping of the methane leak that 2H Construction caused with the grading.

However, the city has decided to separate the remediation plan from the approval, sending it on to the Coastal Commission a "Notice of Final Action."

"The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust is certain that this action on the part of the city goes against the intention of the Planning Commission's vote at a very fundamental level," said Land Trust executive director Elizabeth Lambe on the organization's web site late Tuesday.

"It is likely to be illegal as well," she added.

City Hall staffers are playing favorites, she charged.

"What is particularly galling in this case is that at the time of the grading there was not only a big outcry from the public but also from many council members," she said. "And yet it appears that, once again, the city is willing to give this influential land owner a 'free pass.'"

Lambe emphasized that Los Cerritos Land Trust, Audubon, and others asked for restoration.
However, the Planning Commission's final wording was "remediation."

"There is a difference between restoration and remediation," she said.
"Restoration is the ideal because it returns the land to its previous state, which is what we are seeking for this important habitat area."

The city simply wants to protect Hitchcock, Lambe stated.

"We wish the city would hold those who break the law accountable, and not allow special exemptions for some," she added.