Coastal Panel Rejects Changes in Marina Plan

The California Coastal Commission has refused to accept major changes in Los Angeles County’s plans for Marina del Rey, forcing the county to postpone its efforts to proceed with extensive redevelopment of the area.

The commissioners, meeting in Long Beach, unanimously decided Tuesday to delay consideration of the marina issue until September to allow more time to settle significant differences with the county.

“They feel, and we agree, that a postponement would be beneficial,” Executive Director Peter Douglas told commissioners. “We do have some major problems with this submittal at this time.”

Douglas said the county’s effort to change elements of its long-range land-use plan for the marina area poses serious legal problems. “I just don’t see the way out at this point,” he said.

The plan, adopted in 1986, had called for construction of a bypass road from the Marina Expressway over Lincoln Boulevard and around the north side of the marina before any redevelopment of residential or commercial properties could occur.

But intense opposition from residents in the Oxford Triangle area of Venice--a neighborhood of Los Angeles just across the boundary from the county-owned marina--has blocked the bypass.

Last February, the county Board of Supervisors amended the land-use plan to allow redevelopment to proceed without the bypass and without specific agreement on alternative transportation improvements.

But the Coastal Commission, which shares jurisdiction with local governments over development anywhere in the state coastal zone, must approve any change in the marina land-use plan and its implementation. And the commission’s staff recommended that the county’s changes be rejected as inadequate and inconsistent with the original plan.

The county, lacking the votes to overcome the staff’s objections, asked for a two-month delay on the eve of Tuesday’s commission meeting, and the coastal panel assented.

Ted Reed, director of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors, which oversees the marina, said in an interview that the delay would give both sides a chance to work out their differences.

Reed acknowledged that building the bypass would be “a monumental task.” However, he said he does not know what the alternative to the bypass will be.

The county recently launched a six-month study of traffic problems in and around the marina. The study, scheduled to be completed in late November, may offer alternatives to the bypass, such as shuttle buses, car pools, improvements to streets and intersections, and changes in traffic signals.

County officials are worried that massive developments planned for the Lincoln Boulevard corridor outside the marina could preempt redevelopment of the harbor by using up the remaining traffic capacity in the area.

A vigorous fight over development in the corridor is under way among Culver City, Los Angeles and the county.

A massive $160-million regional shopping center called Marina Place already has been approved by Culver City. The $400-million Channel Gateway residential and office complex on the edge of the marina is about to receive final approval from the Los Angeles City Council. And a project that dwarfs everything else in the area--the multibillion-dollar Playa Vista office, residential, retail, hotel and marina development--is being planned for a vast area immediately south of the marina.

Reed complained that the Coastal Commission was holding the marina hostage. “We think we should be allowed to go ahead with our limited redevelopment before these massive development issues are sorted out.”

The so-called second phase of the marina development calls for 200,000 square feet of new office space, 1,500 residential units, 734 new hotel rooms, plus additional restaurants, retail shops and boat slips.