Hold a Good Thought for Wetlands

Agreement on a compromise plan to preserve the Ballona Wetlands at Playa del Rey is at hand, crowning a long struggle by a citizens’ group to protect the rare resource.

The broad outline of an agreement has been approved by the Friends of Ballona Wetlands, who have led the 5-year legal fight to save the area, and Maguire Thomas Partners, who acquired this and more than 600 adjacent acres in February. Under the new proposal, 270 acres would come under the nature reserve, 30% more than under the plan approved in 1984 by the Coastal Commission.

The new owners appear eager to remove all obstacles to their massive development of the adjacent acreage, a plan that will generate almost 12,000 residential units, hotels with more than 2,000 rooms and 5 million square feet of office space. The environmental impact, including traffic projections, has not yet been completed. Controversy over traffic could breach the compromise.

Under the compromise, Maguire Thomas has agreed to abandon the proposed extension of Falmouth Avenue. That is the right thing to do. The street, bisecting the wetlands, would be a harsh intrusion. But Los Angeles County officials have been strong supporters of the street opening, and there is no assurance that they are prepared to be as enlightened as the developers in agreeing to abandon the plan.

The Ballona Wetlands are modest contrasted to the 900-acre preserve negotiated in Orange County at Bolsa Chica, but that makes them no less valuable on a coast that already has lost 70% of this resource, so essential to protection of the coastal biosphere.