Features

Judge rules Coastal Commission unconstitutional

The Associated Press
Friday April 27, 2001

SACRAMENTO — A fight over an artificial reef project has led a Sacramento Superior Court judge to declare unconstitutional a state agency empowered to rule on coastal development. 

Environmentalists say Judge Charles Kobayashi’s ruling this week that the 29-year-old California Coastal Commission is unconstitutional could seriously damage the state’s coastline. 

Kobayashi said the commission violated the principle of checks and balances because it performs legislative, executive and judicial duties. 

Because the Legislature appoints two-thirds of the commission, it should only have legislative powers, Kobayashi ruled. 

His ruling could drastically change the commission’s makeup or take its power to decide appeals and issue permits. 

Commission opponents say it must be reorganized to answer to voters, while supporters say its political freedom helped it protect the coast. 

“If this stands, it will essentially cripple the Coastal Act,” said commission spokeswoman Sarah Christie.  

“It would so fundamentally weaken California’s coastal program that it would put the coastline in dire jeopardy.” 

Kobayashi’s ruling came in a suit filed by the Marine Forests Society of Balboa, which has experimented with artificial reefs off Newport Beach for about 12 years, attorney Ronald Zumbrun said. 

As part of its test for ways to grow kelp in areas without vegetation, MFS planted used tires on the ocean floor to attract mussels. The Coastal Commission ordered the group to stop in 1999 because MFS had not been issued a permit. The group then sued the commission to keep working. 

An appeal is expected on the ruling. 

The commission denied the reef permit because it competed with another state program, Zumbrun said. 

“It’s fair to say egos and revenge play a part,” he said.  

“We want to see it function as a normal agency, not one that is answerable to no one.” 

Many environmentalists, however, call the commission the only protection against potentially disastrous projects like the one by MFS, said Mark Massara, director of the Sierra Club’s coastal program. 

MFS “dumped all these tires and concrete and plastic off Newport Beach, and while it may be a functioning fish reef, it can also be characterized as a big pile of junk at the bottom of the ocean,” Massara said. 

“The commission is what has taken rich people’s very large projects and made them a bit smaller so we can actually make it to the coast,” Massara said. 

If upheld by appeals courts, the ruling could affect matters before the board now but not past decisions, said John Findley of the Pacific Legal Foundation. 

Findley said he has long contended the commission is unconstitutional. 

 

A 1972 voter initiative created the California Coastal Commission, which the Legislature made permanent in 1976. It has 12 voting members who can make decisions on issues ranging from building permits to parking fees to oil exploration. 

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On the Net: 

Coastal Commission: http://www.coastal.ca.gov 

Marine Forests Society: http://www.marinehabitat.org/