School bests Coastal Commission

St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School won its fight against the California Coastal Commission Monday in Orange County Superior Court.

The school has been planning to replace its facilities with a larger, updated campus. The project was awaiting final approvals from the city when the Coastal Commission appealed the city’s decision to allow the project and attempted to take jurisdiction away from the city.

Under the California Coastal Act, cities with a Local Coastal Plan such as Laguna Beach issue their own coastal development permits, unless the commission decides to step in.

“It’s a very, very big win for us,” said attorney Paul Beard of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the school and the Diocese of Orange in the suit.

“This ruling keeps decision-making over local land use in Laguna Beach where it belongs: with local, community and civic leaders. This ruling recognizes that the Coastal Commission doesn’t have the legal authority to interfere in these local matters. The school is now able to proceed with presenting its environmentally responsible construction plans to city officials, without intrusion from a state bureaucracy.”

Beard described the commission’s move as a “power grab” when the school and diocese filed a lawsuit against the commission late last year.

The commission’s move to take jurisdiction followed a tip from Laguna Beach resident Lisa Marks about water on the property. The commission moved forward based on its belief that two drainage ditches located on the property should be classified as “streams,” therefore placing the area under its jurisdiction.

The commission’s appeal of the city-approved permits had the potential for larger implications for Laguna Beach, city officials warned, because action on any other property in town that contained such a watercourse could therefore be appealable to the commission. Thousands of development projects could have been subjected to appeal, had the commission been successful, said City Manager Ken Frank, who publicly disagreed with the ruling.

State Supervising Deputy Attorney General Jamee Patterson, who represented the Coastal Commission, told the judge during oral arguments in Superior Court that the commission’s jurisdiction in the area was critical, due to coastal sage and the discovery of a threatened bird — the gnatcatcher — on the property, part of which is designated an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area.

“I just can’t find there’s any reasonable definition of stream that indicates there’s a stream on this property,” Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer said in making his ruling from the bench.

Beard and longtime parishioners Barbara and Tristan Krogius said after the hearing that they expect construction on the new campus to begin by June 2008, following the completion of the city permitting process.