Committee to develop coastal standards

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- Mayor Tod Ridgeway has picked the members of an ad

hoc committee that will craft long-awaited development standards for the

city’s coastline.

A six-man committee, set to be formally put together at Tuesday’s City

Council meeting, will be charged with hashing out the standards with the

California Coastal Commission.

Councilmen Steve Bromberg and John Heffernan are tentatively set to

join Ridgeway on the committee, which will also include three planning

commissioners -- Mike Kranzley, Earl McDaniel and Ed Selich.

The state agency has ordered the city to complete the standards --

called the Local Coastal Program, or LCP -- by the end of June 2003. The

coastal commission has set out to put coastal cities without a coastal

program in line with the state’s 1972 Coastal Act, which requires such

standards in coastal cities.

The city has been inching toward certifying a program since the early

1980s, Ridgeway said.

“It’s just something that has been in the works for 20-plus years,”

Ridgeway said. “We’ll get serious for once.”

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

January 1990.

Environmentalists are lauding the city for starting the formal process

of developing the standards by forming the committee, after many starts

and stops.

“The city has a long track record of dragging its feet,” Orange County

CoastKeeper Garry Brown said. “We just applaud the city for sticking with

their commitment to do an LCP.”

Brown added that he has written a number of letters to city officials

asking them to put the program into place.

The coastal commission turned up the heat on the city in October with

a letter informing city officials that they needed to put a program in

place in slightly more than 18 months.

The Oct. 5 letter also singled out several problems in the way Newport

Beach regulates development in the coastal zone, including bluff-top

building and access to public beaches.

The program could smooth the road for homeowners who hope to make

minor changes to their dock or seaside house. They would be able to

one-stop shop at the city’s planning desk, instead of waiting for a

hearing before the coastal commission. Approvals from the state body have

been known to take six months or more.

“Instead of having to go to the coastal commission, citizens could

come to Newport Beach,” Ridgeway said. “We are deputized to approve that

land use.”