Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority outlines plan to restore southern wetlands in Seal Beach

A joint special meeting of the Environmental Quality Control Board and the Recreation and Parks Commission on April 16, 2025, heard a presentation from the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority on the Southern Los Cerritos Wetlands Restoration Project, a phased effort to restore tidal wetlands and add public access on more than 100 acres within the authority's roughly 500-acre jurisdiction in Seal Beach.

The project team, led in the presentation by Heather Altman, public engagement coordinator for the project, and Eric Zahn, principal restoration ecologist and project manager for Title Influence, said the work is funded primarily with state conservancy grants and will proceed in two phases, with a construction manager and contractor selection planned this summer and a targeted groundbreaking this fall. "We actually have the funding...to do the implementation of restoring about 50 to 60% of this land very soon," Zahn said during the meeting.

Why it matters: the authority says the project will restore tidal channels and salt-marsh habitat, provide new public access and education opportunities, create a community hub on a small State Lands Commission parcel at First Street and Pacific Coast Highway, and add capacity for coastal floodwater while designing for long-term sea-level rise.

History and approvals The Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority (LCWA) is a joint powers authority with representatives of the City of Seal Beach, the City of Long Beach, the State Coastal Conservancy and the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. The authority completed a Conceptual Restoration Plan beginning in 2011 and certified a program-level environmental impact review (EIR) in January 2021. The…