California Coastal Commission

An Oct. 11 California Coastal Commission hearing in Long Beach on the proposed Foothill Toll Road extension through South Orange County was postponed and no new date has been set. The toll road proposal has generated heated opposition from local environmentalists and surfers. Members of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy and Surfrider Foundation had planned to charter a bus — and provide lunch — to those who planned to attend and argue against the proposed 16-mile, six-lane toll road.

A proposal for a new Main Beach lifeguard headquarters has been reduced in size. Plans for the project, which call for relocating the headquarters closer to the ocean to give lifeguards a better view of the beach and ocean, will be unveiled to the public at a meeting set for 4 p.m Wednesday in front of the existing facility at the north end of Main Beach. “The project has been redesigned and re-staked,” said Assistant City Manager John Pietig, who is teaming with Marine Safety Chief Mark Klosterman and Special Projects Director Wade Brown on the new facility.

The California Coastal Commission has put a price on the privacy of the beach at Three Arch Bay. Three Arch Bay Homeowners Assn. will pay $50,000 — or possibly $70,000 — toward the renovation of the city Brooks Street stairs in lieu of providing public access to the beach in the gated community. The levy was a condition of commission approval of a coastal development permit to repair the stairs to the Three Arch Bay beach. “It’s a win-win for everybody,” City Manager Ken Frank said.

The city has withdrawn its original proposal for more permanent lifeguard towers on seven local beaches and sent it back to the drawing board. The permanent towers would replace temporary towers — or chairs — in place during the peak summer season. A revised plan for the permanent towers will be submitted to the Laguna Beach Design Review Board, which may issue a coastal development permit — unless the project is appealed either to the City Council or to the California Coastal Commission, which earlier this year determined that the project was appealable to the state panel.

Patio smoking up to business owners Re: Proposed ban on cigarette smoking on patios. Leave things alone. If you don't like something, don't go there. People that own establishments should make their own rules. JAMES WARD Rancho Santa Margarita Coast panel gives checks and balances Re: Should the California Coastal Commission take preemptive appeals of proposed development projects? (Question of the Week, April 20 Coastline Pilot) The whole reason for the citizen's initiative that led to the Coastal Act was that local cities were making choices clearly not in the best interests of the California citizens.

Citizens at odds with city-approved development projects have found a friend in the California Coastal Commission. Increasingly, the commission is taking jurisdiction over individual projects by allowing city-issued permits to be appealed to the commission. On April 10, the commission decided preemptively that a proposed 6,511-square-foot single-family home at 3 Hillhaven Ranch Way in South Laguna is appealable, even though no permit has been issued by the city for the project.

The City Council held freewheeling discussions with the planning commission and the design review board Saturday. Council members met jointly with the commission for 90 minutes in the morning, broke for a bus tour of new or renovated projects and reconvened for a 90-minute session with board members, also attended by representatives of the design review task force. Senior staff members participated. "It was one of the better joint meetings I have attended," said Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman, who stayed for the afternoon session.

City officials will comply with a California Coastal Commission staff opinion that the temporary relocation of the Third Street Cottages needs a coastal development permit. The hitch in the relocation of the cottages to Laguna Canyon was announced in City Manager Ken Frank's Jan. 4 update. "While we disagree with this interpretation, rather than argue with the Commission staff, we have delayed the Planning Commission's consideration until Jan. 24 and have noticed it for a Coastal Development Permit as well as a Temporary Use Permit," Frank said.