Hansen: Coastal Commission is picking the wrong battles

It is revealing that the Orange County office of the California Coastal Commission is not in Orange County. It’s in Long Beach, Los Angeles County.

One wonders if the commission had to get an exception to the Coastal Act to erect a building in the wrong county.

On paper, the state’s Coastal Commission is a good thing. Over the last 30 years it has done some great work. It also has done a lot of boneheaded things to homeowners and small businesses.

Formed in 1972, the Coastal Commission is an independent, quasi-judicial state agency that has sweeping powers to help protect California’s immense coast. Its successes over the years include more public beach access and wetlands restoration.

Critics, however, call it a capricious, rogue agency that uses its unbridled power to overstep its boundaries and whose decisions throttle good local development.

In Laguna Beach, the two latest businesses to incur its wrath are Hotel Laguna and The Ranch golf course project led by businessman Mark Christy.

According to state documents, the Coastal Commission wants to stop Hotel Laguna from putting up a private roped area on the sand in front of its hotel, something it’s been doing since the 1930s.

Remember that the commission was only created in 1972, and its primary mission is to protect beach access. So this red VIP rope has been on its radar since day one.

However, no one has complained about the practice. In fact, Laguna dignitaries including former City Manager Ken Frank and former Police Chief Neil Purcell all basically shrugged in testimonials buried deep in the whopping 330-page commission report.

“The Hotel Laguna did indeed cordon off a part of the beach alongside its hotel, place tables, chairs and umbrellas there, and serve food, drink and alcohol (as of 1933) to its patrons,” wrote A.K. Sandoval-Strausz, associate professor of history at the University of New Mexico, who was asked to evaluate the lengthy historical evidence.

“And it would have been practically inconceivable for a resort hotel of this kind to do otherwise, because that would have meant voluntarily forgoing a lucrative practice that would have been a source of income essential to the hotel’s profitability.”

Again, no one is denying the history. In fact, it is embraced by locals.

If Laguna Beach residents were polled, we would probably vote for more amenities on our beaches, not fewer.

Personally, I would like to have a walk-up window at the Surf and Sand Resort for more convenient take-out food and beverages. I’m sure someone would quickly develop an app so that beach patrons could preorder or pay a little extra for delivery to their beach towels.

Laguna Beach could be a leader in beach amenities, instead of a leader in kelp flies.

As for The Ranch, which is inland from Aliso Beach, this is a case of someone highjacking good public process. This project was dutifully making its way through the government hurdles when Laguna Beach resident Mark Fudge appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to approve it.

According to a recent story in the Coastline Pilot, Fudge is “challenging the project on several grounds, including possible harm to the environment and public access, and any reduction to overall affordable overnight housing.”

I’m not sure what affordable housing has to do with the Coastal Commission, but Fudge seems intent on debating everything and seeing what sticks.

I agree with Planning Commissioner Robert Zur Schmiede (a City Council candidate), who commented last week that it was an “unwarranted California Coastal Commission appeal.” He said Fudge should have worked locally to influence change.

Two examples of heavy-handed, unnecessary state involvement. I can think of a lot better things for the California Coastal Commission to spend its time on:

•Stopping fracking and offshore oil drilling.

•Preventing corrupt development along the remaining open spaces on the state’s coast.

•Policing blatant mansionization, view obstruction and environmental disregard.

But a few velvet ropes at Hotel Laguna and a better, more environmentally sound boutique resort?

Give us a break and pass the lemonade.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at davidhansen@yahoo.com.