Planners hand off the decision
Jenny Marder
A reshuffled Planning Commission deadlocked on a vote for the
proposed desalination plant Tuesday night and opted to pass the
project on to the City Council without blessing or opposition.
The project needed a vote from a majority of the seven-member
commission to be approved, but with the resignation of former
Chairman Randy Kokal and another commissioner on vacation, the vote
stalled at 3 to 2 in favor of denying the project’s remaining
permits.
Newly appointed Planning Commission Chairman Ron Davis, who felt
that the decision had been delayed too long already, moved that the
group pass the matter on to the City Council instead of putting it
off longer. The commission has been trudging through the details of
the project since May.
“This has been a never-ending process,” Davis said. “It’s been
painful to the city, painful to the community, very painful to the
applicant and painful to the staff.”
Some felt that the commission shirked its duty by failing to reach
a final decision.
“I’m outraged that the Planning Commission sloughed off its
responsibility by not making a decision on the desalination plant,”
Councilman Dave Sullivan said. “Anybody can move something along by
sloughing their responsibilities.”
The commission should have deferred the vote until the next
meeting when seven commissioners would have been present, Sullivan
said.
Several commissioners also questioned the wisdom of passing the
proposal on without recommendation.
A stronger message should have been sent to the City Council, said
Commissioner Tom Livengood, who voted in favor of the project.
Commissioner John Scandura, who admitted to violating the Brown Act
at the last meeting, also questioned the action, and said that he was
appointed to the commission to make land-use decisions, not land-use
indecisions.
Mayor Connie Boardman, who asked Kokal to step down last week in
part because of the group’s slow decision-making, said that the
commission did the right thing.
“I think they’ve had this long enough,” she said. “It obviously
would have deadlocked, and the best thing was to pass it up to
council.”
The proposed desalination plant would pull from the AES Huntington
Beach power plant’s daily intake of seawater and treat it to produce
50 million gallons a day of fresh drinking water. The Poseidon Corp’s
proposed plant is the largest of 18 desalination plants proposed
along the California coast.
The commission has gone through a rough patch in the past four
months. Since May, the group has gained three new members and lost
its chairman, Kokal, who was asked to resign after violating protocol
in an election two weeks ago.
Boardman has appointed Carrie Thomas, a member of the
environmental board and a former member of the community services
commission, to fill Kokal’s seat.
Davis was elected as chair on Tuesday by a unanimous vote, and
Commissioner Steve Ray was elected vice chair.
A City Council hearing date for the Poseidon project has not been
set.
“I don’t think any one of us is comfortable with this ... but the
last thing we need staff dealing with is baby-sitting us and to be
costing the taxpayers any more money,” Davis said of the commission’s
decision.
* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)
965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.
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