Seal Beach officials will ask a state agency for $150,000 to hire a consultant to help draft an application to have that same state agency transfer some of its power to city officials.
The Seal Beach City Council authorized staff to apply for a California Coastal Commission LCP Planning Grant at the last council meeting of the year. The item was on the Consent Calendar and was passed without discussion on Monday, Dec. 9.
If the Coastal Commission certifies Seal Beach’s Local Coastal Program, the state agency would transfer some of its authority to the city.
Mayor Ellery Deaton said this was very important to the residents of Seal Beach because a certified program would allow Seal Beach to issue permits for most building projects within the city’s Coastal Zone. She said that right now, everything has to go through the commission. She also said that if the commission can pay for it rather than Seal Beach, so much the better.
Jim Basham, director of Community Development, said that Seal Beach staff believes the Coastal Zone extends to Westminster Avenue, but city staff would have to confirm that with Coastal Commission staff. Basham said it is very hard to define the city’s Coastal Zone boundaries without an approved coastal program.
“Local Coastal Programs (LCPs) are basic planning tools used by local governments to guide development in the coastal zone, in partnership with the Coastal Commission,” according to the Coastal Commission’s website. “LCPs contain the ground rules for future development and protection of coastal resources in the 76 coastal cities and counties. The LCPs specify appropriate location, type, and scale of new or changed uses of land and water.”
“After an LCP has been finally approved, the Commission’s coastal permitting authority over most new development is transferred to the local government, which applies the requirements of the LCP in reviewing proposed new developments,” the Coastal Commission website said.
Commission staff brought up Seal Beach’s’s lack of a certified coastal program at a November public hearing.
According to the state commission staff report at the Nov. 15 Bay City Partners hearing, the Ocean Place project would have been subject to the local program if Seal Beach had a certified LCP.
However, Seal Beach does not have a certified LCP. According to the Coastal Commission staff report, Seal Beach submitted one to the Coastal Commission in 1982 and the commission approved it, subject to changes, the following year. But the City Council never approved the changes and, according to commission staff, the 1983 LCP approval has long since lapsed.
In a letter to the Commission, Ed Selich, project manager for Bay City Partners, said the partners did not understand what
Last month, Coastal Commission staff told the commissioners that approving the Ocean Place project would “prejudice” approval of Seal Beach’s LCP. The authority to approve an LCP belongs to the commissioners, not the staff.
Seal Beach City Council members, staff and members of an ad hoc citizens committee have worked on getting a commission-certified LCP for years, but to date the matter has not yet reached the commissioners.
The application for a grant to hire a consultant is the latest development in Seal Beach’s efforts to streamline approval of construction projects within the Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction.
According to City Manager Jill Ingram’s staff report, Seal Beach will request $150,000 from the commission.
“If awarded, staff proposes to utilize the grant funds to hire a consultant experienced in preparing Local Coastal Programs,” Ingram wrote.
According to Ingram, the 15 counties and 61 cities that are in the Coastal Zone are required to complete Local Coastal Programs.
According to the Coastal Commission website, the cities had counties have created 128 separate areas that could potentially have LCPs. Of these areas, the website said 85 percent have “effectively” certified programs.
