Coastal panel issues deadline to city

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- A state panel has ordered city officials to get in

line with California law and craft rules for development along beach

areas by the end of June 2003.

To meet that deadline imposed by the California Coastal Commission,

Mayor Tod Ridgeway is putting together an ad hoc city committee that

would hash out the particulars of the program, known as a Local Coastal

Program, before submitting it for certification.

Local Coastal Programs, mandated by the 1972 Coastal Act, regulate

development of coastal areas, including restrictions on square footage,

building on bluff tops, traffic, parking and public access to the beach.

“This is us rolling up our sleeves and putting in a broad land-use

element,” Ridgeway said. “It’s going to be a lot of hard work. There are

going to be disagreements.”

The commission, known for its sometimes strident approach, has prodded

the city to adopt the new regulations.

The city, in January 1990, adopted a land-use plan, the first step

toward a coastal program. The city must now update that document, which

has been amended several times since its passage, and develop an

implementation plan, which maps out how the city would install the new

rules.

In an Oct. 5 letter to Patrick Alford, a senior city planner,

commission analyst Anne Blemker pointed out several issues that must be

addressed.

The city “currently lacks adequate development standards for the

kinds, locations and intensity [of development] allowed at coastal bluff

sites,” she wrote.

The issue could become a sticking point, Ridgeway said, if the

commission wants to install onerous new rules. The City Council, in fact,

balked on April 24, when it was asked to consider protecting a section of

the Corona del Mar bluffs.

That’s a troubling attitude, an environmental activist said.

“The time to stop [fighting new regulations] is now,” said Susan

Jordan, who heads the League for Coastal Protection. “It’s time to put in

a stronger and better plan.”

Historically, the city has found itself at odds with the commission.

After the Coastal Act, which established the commission in 1972, the city

considered suing or other measures to make it easier for developers to

build.

Councilman Dennis O’Neil, the city attorney at the time, said the

city’s aggressive posture has softened over the years. O’Neil lauded the

effort to hammer out new regulations, provided they are fair.

“It’s a matter of just how strict those standards are,” O’Neil said.

“I think we’ll reach a mutually satisfactory solution.”

One of the city’s long-running sources of friction with the commission

has been the agency’s push for more public access to beaches abutting

gated or other private communities.

The city’s resistance of that effort isn’t likely to soften, Ridgeway

said.

“We’re not going to get public access to a private community,”

Ridgeway said. “That time has come and gone.”

Councilman Steve Bromberg and three planning commissioners have

volunteered to sit on the ad hoc committee with Ridgeway. The new mayor

is still looking for a final council member to round out the team.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .