Action on Wetlands Urged

NEWPORT BEACH — Residents are calling for the city to take a stand on protection of local wetlands after the city ordered a halt to construction work on the new Hoag Hospital Child Care Center because of a possible threat to the marshy area.

Unless the city officially recognizes what are commonly known as the Hoag wetlands as environmentally sensitive, the area will remain in danger of being damaged by the construction, said Jan Vandersloot, a Newport Beach resident and board member of the environmental group Amigos de Bolsa Chica.

Vandersloot and Bill Jennings, the president of the West Newport Beach Community Assn., approached City Atty. Robert Burnham last Thursday about the legality of grading work on the east side of the wetlands. The area of concern is about 1,500 square feet of marsh north of Coast Highway and east of Superior Street.

The city had approved Hoag’s grading plans, but the hospital’s permit did not show that grading work would infringe upon the wetlands area, city planner Patricia Temple said.