Coastal Commission

I read with interest "2 Critics Take Seats on Coastal Panel" (June 13). Unfortunately while the Coastal Commission has "defended" the California coast against development (unless of course one could afford the price) they have failed miserably in providing long-term coastal access to California's general population. It's time for state government to shut down the Coastal Commission and return control of the coast to local county government. H.M. PORTZ Rancho Palos Verdes

Forget the 200-foot-tall observation wheel. Venice Beach expects to get a zip line this summer. The Venice Neighborhood Council this week approved the installation of a 720-foot zip-line ride to run for a three-month trial period, clearing the way for consideration by the California Coastal Commission. Under the proposal, riders will take off from a 44-foot tower near the skate park and ride to a 24-foot tower at Windward Plaza by the basketball courts. The metal towers will be decorated with local art, and the attraction will bring in much-needed revenue to clean up the boardwalk, said Linda Lucks, president of the council.

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected a controversial proposal by U2 guitarist the Edge to build five mansions on a rugged ridgeline above Malibu that is home to mountain lions and native chaparral. The 8-4 vote was the culmination of what has become a closely watched property rights battle between the musician, whose real name is David Evans, and the agency that regulates development along the California coastline. "In 38 years of this commission's existence, this is one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation," Peter Douglas, the agency's executive director, said in an interview after the vote.

A truce has been forged in the decades-long fight over the forested land surrounding the world-famous Pebble Beach resort. The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday approved a plan by actor Clint Eastwood, golfer Arnold Palmer, former baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and other Pebble Beach Co. owners that is billed as the last development ever at the gated complex of golf courses, mansions and hotels on the Monterey Peninsula. The decision largely puts to rest a contentious environmental battle over the company's plans to expand into its prime real estate holdings in the forest above the craggy bluffs and crashing surf.

The California Coastal Commission is losing the leader who has guided it for a generation, casting uncertainty over the direction of the powerful agency responsible for guarding the state's treasured coastline. Peter Douglas, 68, who has been fighting lung cancer since last spring, announced this week that he would go on sick leave Monday and will retire in November after 26 years as executive director. He said he planned to hand off leadership to Senior Deputy Director Charles Lester.

California Coastal Commission members Sara Wan and Pedro Nava will speak to the Greater Oxnard Organization of Democrats at 7:15 p.m. today. Wan is a former chairwoman of the commission and Nava is a candidate for the 35th Assembly District. They will speak on the role of community activism in coastal protection. The talk, to be held at the VFW Hall at 300 Surfside Drive in Port Hueneme, is open to the public. Afterward, club members will consider resolutions regarding the possible U.S.

Monterey County Supervisor Dave Potter has been reappointed to the California Coastal Commission. A member of the panel since 1997, Potter mounted a heavy push to keep the seat controlled by new Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Los Angeles). The speaker appoints four of the 12 commissioners, including one county supervisor or City Council member from the Central Coast. Potter said he was concerned the new speaker would give the seat to an official from Santa Cruz or San Mateo counties.

Agreeing with the County Board of Supervisors, Ventura County's mayors have nominated the same three candidates to fill a vacant slot on the state Coastal Commission. Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason, Ventura Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures and Port Hueneme Mayor Toni Young were endorsed for area representative by the mayors selection committee. On Jan.

The Coastal Commission has made some very controversial pro-development decisions in Orange County over the last few years. And as your article pointed out ("Her Critics Wonder: Did the Coast Lose a Friend?" May 22), the voice of the local commissioner is given a lot of weight. Toni Iseman of Laguna Beach came to the Coastal Commission with the backing of the environmental community, but her poor voting record has lost that support in two years. Though it is true that leadership requires compromise, and there is always tremendous pressure to develop along the coast, it is equally true that there is a time to stand on principle and to demand more.

A spectacular stretch of Northern California coastline that includes ocean-side bluffs, beaches, rolling hills and redwood groves will be permanently protected from development under a landmark deal approved by the state Coastal Commission. Nearly 10 square miles of untouched shoreline, wooded glens, streams and farmland in northern Santa Cruz County, extending several miles inland, will be transferred to the state and federal governments, which will operate it as open space and preserve portions for agriculture.

Siding with the coast Re "California Coastal Commission chief," Obituary, April 4 Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission for a quarter-century, passed away. California lost one of its true environmental heroes. I am so proud of his fight against the moneyed developers and powers that be to keep beach access for the public. His foes tried several times to oust him, and with his true friends standing with him, he fought them off. Bravo, Peter.

As a child crossing the English Channel with his family to immigrate to America, Peter M. Douglas was mesmerized by the churning seas and his first sighting of a whale, an experience that he said forged an "intangible, unbreakable, lifelong bond" with the ocean that deepened as he grew up in Southern California. That fondness for the ocean would later lead him to become one of the fiercest and most controversial guardians of the state's 1,100-mile-long coastline who battled to preserve its natural beauty and public access to its beaches.

The California Coastal Commission was on a mission to find out what's keeping the public from some of the state's most desirable beaches. On a rare bus tour of the Malibu coast this month, officials stopped to inspect gates that were once locked, peered at fake "no parking" signs residents used to ward off beachgoers and even stumbled upon a movie shoot hogging all the parking at the glitzy beach town's pier. But perhaps most noteworthy was what the commissioners didn't see: more than 20 pathways to the beach that were set aside on paper — some of them decades ago — but have yet to be built, depriving people of the opportunity to get to the shore.

State coastal regulators Wednesday criticized and fined a property owner for unearthing artifacts at a 9,000-year-old Native American village site near the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach. In a settlement with the California Coastal Commission, the Goodell Family Trust agreed to pay a $430,000 penalty, rebury artifacts and restore areas disturbed when archaeologists dug a series of pits on the family-owned land on the Bolsa Chica Mesa in 2010. The work was conducted without the state's authorization and without a Native American monitor present, a requirement under state law. State officials said the excavation damaged prehistoric shells, animal bones, scorched rocks and other cultural artifacts that might help determine the boundaries of the 9,000-year-old village and burial site on the mesa, above one of the state's most treasured coastal wetlands.

Most drivers roar right by the red and white signs on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, but Pat Veesart slows down and calls them out one by one. "Almost guaranteed it's not a legitimate sign," says Veesart, a baseball cap pushed back on his head as he steers his rust-spotted Jeep down the highway. Veesart has a skilled eye for spotting suspicious "No Parking" signs. Take the bent metal sign propped up against a chain-link fence at Latigo Shore Drive, whose faded red lettering screams: "NO PARKING ANY TIME TOW AWAY.

The State Lands Commission has approved the boundaries for Marina Park in Newport Beach, bringing the Balboa Peninsula public waterfront development one step closer to construction. The city can now complete its California Coastal Commission application and restart the long-stalled project. Park advocates, city officials and others decided on a plan for the development more than three years ago, but it has been stuck in a bureaucratic morass. In the meantime, residents of the 57 mobile homes were afforded more time on public land, while others protested the slow progress.

U2 guitarist the Edge, whose real name is David Evans, and three other Malibu property owners filed separate lawsuits Friday seeking to set aside the California Coastal Commission's denial of their applications to build ridge-top homes above Malibu. The plaintiffs, who own four adjacent parcels of land zoned for residential development in the unincorporated Sweetwater Mesa area, allege that the coastal panel's June 16 denial represented an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation.