Governor Kills Bill to Increase Authority of Coastal Panel : Davis’ Measure Sought to Slow ‘Midnight Developers’

In a move that disappointed environmentalists, Gov. George Deukmejian on Friday vetoed legislation that would have given the state Coastal Commission power to crack down faster on illegal road-building and other unpermitted development.

The governor said in a veto message that he scuttled the bill, authored by state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), because the commission should not have sole authority to impose on builders immediate stop-work orders backed by fines.

Davis’ legislation sought to give coastal officials authority to issue cease-and-desist orders against developers who violate coastal preservation laws. The legislation also provided for fines up to $6,000 per day against builders who ignored such orders.

Backlog of Cases

Coastal officials said the bill was needed to help combat rising incidents of illegal road construction, landscaping and stream filling in coastal regions. They said years of Deukmejian budget cuts have left the commission with a backlog of more than 600 cases of alleged violations statewide, more than half of them in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Illegal road grading and landscaping have become serious problems in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu area, where the enticement of huge profits to be made from building expensive homes far exceeds the threat of state fines as far as many developers are concerned, officials say.

Under Davis’ bill, coastal officials would have been able to issue stop-work orders in a single day. Under existing law, they must ask the state attorney general’s office to persuade a judge to sign a temporary restraining order, a process that often takes a week.

In the meantime, officials say, “midnight developers” can finish a project, wreaking environmental damage that is often difficult to document, and expensive and time-consuming to prosecute.

But Deukmejian agreed with business and farm interests that opposed the bill on grounds that it would give bureaucrats “blanket authority” to shut down projects, rather than leaving that decision to a judge in a court hearing where landowners could present their case.

Objects to Power

“I appreciate the goal of the author in his attempts to enforce the law against unauthorized development on the coast,” Deukmejian said. “I do not believe, however, that either the executive director or the Coastal Commission should have sole authority to impose cease-and-desist orders which are accompanied by substantial fines.”

Coastal officials had expected the governor, a longtime antagonist of the coastal protection agency, to torpedo the Davis bill.

But Commissioner Madelyn Glickfeld of Malibu angrily criticized him nonetheless.

“He’s so blinded by his hatred of the commission that he violated his own principles of law and order,” she said.

“He’s definitely on the side of law-breakers. We’ll just have to continue in the vein we are and hope these criminals don’t wreck the coastal zone before we have a new governor.”

Glickfeld said continued unauthorized grading and other development could, in mountainous areas, result in flooding that might cause serious property damage and even loss of life.

Davis, who left Friday on a trip to Portugal, could not be reached for comment. A spokesman described him as “deeply disappointed” by Deukmejian’s veto, which marked only the second time that the Republican governor has rejected a Davis bill.