LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I read the editorial in the Feb. 1 Independent, and it was a breath of

fresh air -- a good editorial (“Hearthside can end this 30-year battle

now�). I am in support of Hearthside becoming a willing seller of the

land so it can be brought into public ownership and preserved.

Please count me in as a resident of California and of Huntington Beach

-- supporting this preservation of Bolsa Chica and of the Coastal

Commission’s decision in that direction.

CAROLE SHINN

Huntington Beach

In your editorial you support the Coastal Commission’s “taking� of

Hearthside Homes’ land based on the fact that many people wanted that

decision. You ignore the fact that many people also approved of the land

use that had previously been approved -- three times -- by the

commission.

The fact that the plan was not supporting the wishes of some people

caused them to be the vocal group. The rest of us were satisfied with the

direction the property use was going, so we remained silent.

Apparently, that was a mistake. If you had a representative at the

November hearing of the Coastal Commission, you would know that there

were as many, possibly more, people attending in support of the

County/Hearthside plan as there were who opposed it. Now that the

commission has come up with a plan that robs the residents of the

community of many benefits that were included in the Hearthside plan, we

must become the vocal group.

I must add that you improperly read the desires of the group who

opposed the Hearthside plan if you feel the commission plan met with

their approval. They openly state they will not be content with any

building on the Bolsa Chica mesa, not just with limited building.GEORGE

CROSS

Huntington Beach

Thank you so much for your editorial in support of saving the Bolsa

Chica wetlands. As a Realtor you would think I would like as many homes

as possible in the area. As a concerned homeowner, I am worried that no

one is thinking of the long-term effect of overbuilding. Who cares about

the birds? I do. We should care about all of our open space. We all need

to think of the lack of open space there is today.

Where are the animals and birds going to live? Even the rain water has

nowhere to go as more and more space is turned into buildings and roads.

Over and over again in our state, we have overbuilt. We must stop and

think of our environment so that future generations can still enjoy these

areas and the animals can still have a place to live.JENNIFER A. THOMAS

Huntington Beach

Your Feb. 2 editorial is so misleading and oversimplified, one can

only surmise that the writer was completely uninformed about the issues

surrounding the Bolsa Chica and relied heavily on the propaganda of

certain pseudo-environmental groups such as the Bolsa Chica Land Trust

and the Amigos de Bolsa Chica to craft this puff piece.

Journalism should be a notable profession and editors should be chosen

less for their stylized writing and more for their desire to be fair in

all things. At the very least, anyone attempting to sway public opinion

through editorial privilege should not insult the same public by

neglecting to fully comprehend the issue at hand.

The complexities of the Bolsa Chica decision notwithstanding, the

writer’s insipid plea to end this struggle simply because a vocal

minority has expressed unhappiness is utterly ridiculous. Battles for

justice are not easily won, but Hearthside Homes should not back down due

to the whining of a handful of spoiled brats who simply want what is not

theirs. To even suggest such a thing exposes the ignorance and arrogance

of the writer.

Why not “enough is enough� on the part of Coastal Commission and NIMBY

(not in my back yard) groups? Why not encourage them to respect private

property rights, quit jerking the owner around, quit entering into

agreements they have no intentions of keeping, quit suing, quit

manipulating the system and quit whining.

That would also end the “turmoil�, wouldn’t it?

RICHARD TIFFIN

Huntington Beach