ActCoastal News    

March Hearing Report

The March meeting of the California Coastal Commission took place over three days at the Oxnard Harbor District in Port Hueneme. Items on the agenda raised several issues critical to California’s coast including shoreline armoring, sea level rise, public access and sediment management. The meeting also featured many notable speakers highlighting local coastal conditions in Oxnard, including representatives from local environmental justice group CAUSE and California State University Channel Islands. Read the full meeting report here.

L.A. Times: "Cutting off the public's beach access to appease a billionaire would be unconscionable"

"...Khosla is seeking to dismantle a law that, for four decades, has provided reasonable access to California's beaches along the entire coast to millions of people, vanishingly few of whom can afford to buy houses along the coast.

In fact, the Coastal Act and the Commission's enforcement of it may be the only thing that has stood between the public's access to the beach and high-rollers buying enough property to block it off. The idea that Khosla would use his wealth to resolve a dispute about his private road by trying to demolish that law and diminish access to the coast is unconscionable." Read the full editorial here.

Commissioners on Trial for Ex Parte Violations

Three former and two current Commissioners are on trial this month, accused of misrepresenting or failing to report hundreds of ex parte communications. The San Diego Superior Court is currently working to scrutinize more than 200 disclosure reports, between 2013 and 2016, to determine whether the so-called ex-parte communications with developers and other lobbyists were filed in accordance with the Coastal Act.

ActCoastal has discussed the importance of transparency to ensure balanced public input and process extensively. See for example, what happened at Broad Beach in 2015. For more information, check out coverage in the San Diego Union Tribune.

You can follow us on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, too! As ever, thanks for your support and dedication to access, open space protection and coastal preservation! Please let us know of your coastal concerns – we must all work together to #SaveOurCoast!