News in brief

Chapter files suit on Dana Pt.

Sierra Club Angeles Chapter and the South Orange County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation jointly filed a lawsuit challenging California Coastal Commission approval of the city of Dana Point's Local Coastal Plan Amendment and Headlands Development and Conservation Plan.

After the filing, landowner Headlands Reserve LLC agreed to a 30-day stay of construction activity pending a hearing on a preliminary injunction. During that time, no work of any kind is to occur on the site.

Sierra Club and Surfrider agree that the underlying issue in the lawsuit is whether the California Coastal Act, one of our state's most important environmental laws, will be adhered to or ignored.

The contested plan allows construction of 2,200 feet of rock-pile seawall for the sole purpose of facilitating the grading and development of up to 75 coastal bluff-face custom lots on land that, according to Coastal Commission staff reports, is geologically unstable.

The plan also allows for the destruction of more than 11 acres of environmentally sensitive protected habitat area for the purpose of facilitating the grading and development of another 40 or more custom lots and a 65-90-room hotel.

These actions violate multiple California Coastal Act policies, as detailed by two lengthy Coastal Commission staff reports.

Legally and politically, the project's approval and the manner in which a narrow majority of commissioners arrived at the approval set very bad precedents for future coastal development proposals in California.

Sierra Club and Surfrider members, and many local citizens, have worked together at every administrative step in the nearly four-year process that has led to this lawsuit.

-Celia Kutcher, Chair, Dana Point Headlands Task Force


North Coast Wilderness bill reintroduced

The Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Act was re-introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson in the House and by Sen. Barbara Boxer in the Senate this January. The bills would designate over 300,000 acres as wilderness and 21 miles of rivers as 'wild and scenic' in Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, and Napa. Though the Senate passed the bill in the closing days of the 108th Congress, the House never took it up.

California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman expressed the Schwarzenegger administration's support for Rep. Thompson's bill. To thank the governor for his support contact him at: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814; fax: 916-445-4633; phone: 916-445-2841; http://www.govmail.ca.gov/.


Slope density ordinance at risk in L.A.

The Slope Density Ordinance in Los Angeles is designed to protect hillsides from over-development, both for aesthetic reasons and for practical and public-safety reasons. With the recent heavy rains causing big problems for so many hillside houses in the L.A. area, one would think that the City Planning Department would be even more vigilant in enforcing this law. Their actions have proved quite the contrary.

Whitebird, the developer of the proposed Canyon Hills development in the Verdugo Mountains north of Burbank, maintains that it has the right to build 175 houses on its 887-acre property, and the Planning Department has agreed.

But when the Sierra Club, activists, and community land-use lawyers researched the issue, they found that the map Whitebird used to determine the average slope of the land did not meet accuracy standards required by the ordinance.

The developer was also using an incorrect method of calculation. When done properly, even with Whitebird's inaccurate map, calculations indicate that a maximum 67 houses are allowed. Calculating with a map of acceptable accuracy would probably lower this number to around 45. The Planning Department endorsed the developer's calculations, and City Councilmember Wendy Greuel went along, even though the Sierra Club and other community activist organizations had pointed out the errors.

When an article on the subject appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News recently, Greuel agreed that the calculation needed to be re-evaluated.

The outcome of this case is important because all hillside areas of Los Angeles will be affected, including Pacific Palisades, Eagle Rock, the Hollywood Hills, and the Santa Monica Mountains.

What you can do? Write a letter to Wendy Greuel expressing your opinion about the Slope Density Ordinance and Canyon Hills: greuel@council.lacity.org; 200 N. Spring St., #475, LA, CA 90012.

-Dean Wallraff