LB Evades Coastal Commission At Its Own Risk

Laguna Beach Pays The Price For Trying to Circumvent the Coastal Commission

Penny Elia’s request for Cal Coastal Commission intervention over the beach curfew ordinance via the appellate process is just the latest example in a long, shameful and embarrassing history. Don’t blame her, blame a combination of City Hall ignorance, ineptitude and/or just plain arrogance.

Hers is only the most recent example of repeated attempts to circumvent existing laws and ordinances by our City. So don’t shoot the messenger (Penny), think about replacing your complicit Council members who refuse to dismiss or reprimand a staff that weasels its way out of compliance or mushrooms (buries) debate over and over again. That’s the real message.

Several months ago, in another well-publicized confrontation, I reached out to the CCC regarding the homeless shelter in Laguna Canyon. In that case, I correctly contended that a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) should have been required. This would have meant at least one Planning Commission hearing, one City Council hearing, then if challenged (appealed) a CCC hearing to sustain those permits.

It would have provided Laguna Beach residents multiple opportunities to confront the inertial will of City Hall on a level, transparent playing field. It is no secret that the CCC staff has long held a disdain and suspicion for our non-compliance posture, and so incidents like the curfew appeal simply build on a pitiful CCC track record by the City. Chronic violators, repeat offenders are always given more scrutiny, and our staff has created that hostile atmosphere with the CCC.

In my case, CCC staff concurred in their email response to me and I forwarded that response to City Hall. Too close to the City’s proposed opening date, the City desperately searched for a way around the problem of compliance and declared it a health and public safety emergency. Circumventing local hearings and outside public agency review, this made the City exempt, a strategy that robbed us of democratic due process and a real voice.

I got a lot of hateful email and phone calls, but the fault was actually that of a City bureaucracy that either hadn’t or wouldn’t do its homework. Locals should have been asking themselves why their supposedly professional staff hadn’t dealt with this appellate potential and made the shelter bulletproof from the get go. They’re well paid, why can’t they get it right the first time?

The next time Lagunans get exasperated and upset at those of us who rightfully demand compliance, they should reflect that if the City staff and Council are unable to anticipate such appeals then maybe the fault is with them, not us.

We as a City are not being served well, and a thorough housecleaning next election might remove the mechanisms and mindset that leave Laguna so vulnerable to intervention.