Judge’s opinion may help sea activists

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- An attorney for the Marine Forests Society said

Wednesday that the group’s legal battle against the California Coastal

Commission could be boosted by an opinion issued last week by a Mendocino

County Superior Court judge.

The Marine Forests Society since 1988 has maintained an undersea

marine environment made of tires, PVC pipe and plastic bottles in the

ocean off Balboa Pier. For months, the group has been trying to persuade

the commission to allow the artificial reef to remain.

The commission, however, has taken a skeptical view of the structure.

After a short hearing on the subject in May, the commission gave the

group 60 days to start the process of dismantling it.

The society has filed legal challenges against the commission to

overturn its decision.

And the opinion released last week could give a significant boost to

the group’s legal battle, said Ronald Zumburn, the attorney for the

society. The opinion, written by Superior Court Judge Vincent Lechowick,

is a proposed ruling on a case brought against the Coastal Commission by

a Mendocino County couple whose application to build a home on their land

was twice denied.

Lechowick concluded that in that case, the procedures of the Coastal

Commission hearing on the home design were unfair and improper.

Specifically, the judge said the commission’s use of unreliable evidence,

unreasonable time constraints, lack of review of the property owner’s

case and other factors contributed to his conclusion.

“The records do not support a conclusion that adequate due process and

objective, impartial consideration were given in these instances,”

Lechowick wrote.

Lisa Trankley, a deputy attorney general who has represented the

commission on the Marine Forests Society’s case, said she had not yet

seen the opinion. She stressed, however, that the Mendocino County

decision did not dictate any particular legal course of action in

Sacramento Superior Court, where the society’s case is being heard.

“It isn’t at all binding,” Trankley said. “If the reasoning is good,

it might be influential.”

However, Zumbrun said the ruling is significant because many of the

procedural concerns that Lechowick describes are ones that the Marine

Forests Society has been complaining about.

After the May hearing on the artificial reef, the group said the

15-minute period it was given to present its case to the commission was

inadequate. The group also had qualms about the accuracy of charges made

by commission staff concerning the environmental impact of the underwater

structure.

In the Mendocino County case, Lechowick noted, the commission’s

process “allowed unfounded, unsworn and unreliable ‘evidence’ to be

admitted and considered.”

“They got the same treatment that [Marine Forests Society founder]

Rodolphe Streichenberger got,” Zumbrun said. “We’re hoping it has some

impact on the Marine Forest Society’s case.”

Although the society is required in the next week to file an

application to dismantle its marine habitat, a variety of legal

challenges filed by the group means that more decisive action will be

postponed until after an October hearing in Sacramento.