Del Mar

Faced with lawsuits from two sides, the Del Mar City Council decided after a two-hour closed session Monday to scrap an ordinance designed as a compromise between the demands of oceanfront property owners and the city’s attempts to control the sandy beaches.

The ordinance, which has been more than six months in the making and has been subjected to hours of public hearings, had been scheduled for its final hearing and adoption Monday night.

Instead, the City Council ordered the proposal removed from the agenda. The members then instructed the city staff to prepare a new beach overlay ordinance for further public hearings before the Planning Commission and Council.

City Atty. Roger Krauel, who recommended the move, said the action would allow the city staff to incorporate suggestions made during the earlier public hearings into the new ordinance.

The scrapped ordinance was designed to resolve the decades-old conflict between private property rights and the public’s right to use the beaches, a dispute that has grown hotter as the beach shrinks and the summer crowds grow larger.

Beach property owners already have announced through their lawyers that they intend to challenge any attempt to force them to remove patios and beach protective devices, such as seawalls, from in front of their homes.