County approves ACT V development

Barbara Diamond

The county Planning Commission voted 4 to 1 Wednesday to approve a

coastal development permit for the relocation of the city corporation

yard to the Laguna Canyon parcel known as ACT V.

Testimony at the hearing about the Coastal Commission’s stand on

the permit process, recently made public, deepened the rift on the

council to a chasm.

A letter from the California Coastal Commission dated April 21

notified the county that the staff regards the permit as appealable

to the commission. A similar letter was sent to the city’s Community

Development Department. County, and city officials dispute that.

“We got the letter Wednesday morning,” City Manager Ken Frank

said, “but I had received a fax Tuesday afternoon that the letter was

coming.”

Based on the fax, the City Council on Tuesday voted 3 to 2 to hire

specialized legal council to look into issues raised by the coastal

commission.

Councilman Wayne Baglin and Mayor Toni Iseman, a longtime opponent

of the relocation to ACT V, opposed hiring an attorney.

Frank said he gave copies of the letter to Iseman, Baglin and

Councilwomen Elizabeth Pearson and Cheryl Kinsman at the county

Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, which all four attended.

“No one on the council had seen this letter from the Coastal

Commission when they voted to hire an attorney to oppose commission

review of the project,” Iseman said after the meeting.

She had testified to that, identifying herself as a member of the

commission.

“I was the next speaker,” Kinsman said Thursday. “I said, to my

best recollection, that I wasn’t going to say anything, but since she

mentioned she was on the coastal commission and had received that

letter only this morning that I would leave it up to the county

commissioners to draw their own conclusions.”

Observers at the hearing interpreted Kinsman’s statement as an

implication that Iseman had prior knowledge of the coastal

commission’s action and possibly influenced it.

“The commission did not take this action at my request or on my

behest,” Iseman said. “They don’t take orders from me.”

Iseman wants an apology from Kinsman.

The Coastal commission staff advised the county and the city that

any development of the site that had taken place without provable

notification to the commission was done without a valid permit,

because the commission had no record of being notified when the

original permit was approved by the county several years ago. Grading

and alterations to a blue stream line were done before the City

Council decided not to move the corporation yard to ACT -- a decision

now reversed.

“We had the approval of the county, state Fish and Game, the Army

Corps of Engineers and the Regional Water Quality Board,” Frank said.

The letter also contended that any reduction in parking at ACT V

requires an amendment to the city’s local coastal plan.

“I’ve been saying that for 10 years,” said Laguna Canyon

Conservancy President Carolyn Wood, a member of the city’s Parking,

Traffic and Circulation Committee.

Frank expects the county approval on Wednesday to stand. The

permit is for four years.