By Michael D. Pattinson
North County Times
October 18, 2005
The
California Coastal Commission apparently did not get the memo:
In the aftermath of the recent Gulf Coast emergencies, delay
is now the greatest crime a government agency can commit.
Then what are we to think of the Coastal Commission when it
routinely takes years to decide emergency matters of life and
death? The most recent emergency was at the 132-unit Las
Brisas condominium community in Solana Beach. City engineers
said homes were about to fall off the cliff and onto the beach
below ---- exactly the kind of accident that kills people
every year along our coast.
And
they said it could happen again any day if the residents were
not allowed to build a sea wall to stop the erosion and
protect the cliffs.
By
any definition that is an emergency. That was one year ago.
Last week, the Coastal Commission grudgingly approved the sea
wall, but not before requiring the residents to pay $22,000 to
the Commission for sand it claimed would have washed off the
cliffs and onto the beach without the wall. This is a bit like
billing the residents of New Orleans for extra water.
The commission added another penalty of $249,000 because it
said building a sea wall would result in the "lost
recreational value" of land beneath the cliffs. This is
the same land where today signs warn beachgoers of danger.
Apparently, dodging tons of falling rock and sand is now
considered a beach sport.
Two North County residents have died in the last several years
after being buried alive by bluff collapses caused by erosion.
Both were close to the proposed sea wall in Solana Beach.
Even the risk of injury and death on the beach is not an
emergency to everyone. The Coastal Commission's political
auxiliary, the Surfrider Foundation, sued the city of Solana
Beach because it thought the city's emergency declaration was
some kind of hoax manufactured to skirt state regulations.
The Surfriders specialize in this kind of litigation. For the
last several years, their lawyers have been traveling up and
down the state trying to convince city councils to ban more
sea walls and to remove the ones we have.
They call it "planned retreat" ---- let homes all
over California fall into the ocean regardless of anyone's
life savings, regardless of the danger.
And, no, I am not making this up. They really want that, and
they are doing everything they can to make it happen.
What we call an emergency, they call a desired result.
The California Coastal Commission routinely delays planned
projects such as roads, schools, housing and even golf
courses. Those delays can be years or even decades, and we,
the people, let them get away with it. But life and safety
issues are another matter.
The commission has shown us that the people in charge of
protecting coastal lives and property don't care about either.
Now that is an emergency.
North County Times columnist Michael D. Pattinson is chief
executive of Carlsbad home builder Barratt American.
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