Why is Playa Vista drying up the Public-owned wetlands at Ballona?

4/11/2014--California Coastal Commission Rejects Claims of No Wrongdoing by Playa Capital LLC, California Department of Fish & Wildlife

For years we have battled the public statements of the Playa Vista developers that the wetlands were too dry and degraded to be worth saving. Thus development of thousands of condominiums would be allowed under state wetland protection law. Later, after the State of California bought the land, we have had to combat the plans of the State's bulldozer-loving bureaucracy which believes that the only way to fix these degraded wetlands is to massively remove virtually the entire site, and drown most of it under deep water, instead of taking a gentler approach and restoring the historic shallow creeks on the land, thereby protecting a mix of water and dry land and a balanced ecosystem of wetness for fish and birds and dry land for mammals and reptiles and butterflies.

So we have viewed with suspicion the revelation that Playa Vista actually installed a drainage system with no permits over 10 years ago that dries out a large area of their former land now owned by the state, seeing it as part of larger scheme to make the land either safe for development or so dry that a really drastic and destructive restoration plan is required.

See the Press release from the Grassroots Coalition:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140429007307/en/Grassroots-Coalition-Announces----California-Coastal-Commission#.U2FE0XaRJiY


For Coastal Commission 's 4/11/2014 letter: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5SGRAMv8RXuaGxobDljTnFoUmM/edit?usp=sharing

More information:

http://www.saveballona.org/playa-vista-ballona-wetlands-drainage-device-press-coverage.html