There seems to be quite a lot going on at the coastal commission these days, so we thought we'd do a bit of a roundup.
You may recall the spate of statewide press the Commission got earlier this year when commissioners ousted longtime Executive Lester Snow. Called the "Shoreline Showdown", it prompted a series of hand wringing and outcry by the environmental community. The Governor and legislative eladers were taken to task for their appointees having ousted Snow, and talk began of "reforming" the Commission.
Then came the LA Times report last month that "The most influential person on the coastal commission may be this lobbyist" which is Susan McCabe, owner of Marina Del Rey based McCabe & Co, who "by all accounts dominates the field of coastal developers' agents."
Now this week, we have Sen Hanna Beth Jackson proposing to "level the playing field" with a bill to ban ex-parte communications with Coastal Commissioners, the Times (again) writing "The so-called ex-parte communications between individual commissioners and developers, lobbyists, environmentalists and other interested parties have become a major element in the way the commission presides over land use, public access and environment protection along 1,100 miles of coastline" and also "Of 374 ex-parte disclosure forms filed from January 2015 to March 2016, more than half involved developers, property owners and their lobbyists. Environmental groups accounted for less than 10% of the total." It should also be noted that Asm Maeinschien has a separate bill targeted specifically at staff communications at the Commission, AB 2658 which "would require commission staff members to maintain records and disclose any communication with an interested person pertaining to a matter before the commission by including specified information about the communication in staff reports provided to commission members."
SO lots going on with proposed reform and/or regulation of the Commission, while it itself continues its work. This week, its been reported that the Commission has raised several concerns about a 63-unit condo development proposed for Mission Beach, "giving residents some hope that the panel may overturn the City Council's recent approval of the project." The LA Times also writes "If it goes forward, it would probably be the last large project built in Mission Beach for many years because of a lack of available land."
Any ex parte in there?