Panel Ends Stalemate on Marina Plan : Redevelopment: Coastal Commission OKs plan to allow 10% of Marina del Rey project without the construction of a disputed bypass road.

Breaking a deadlock that had stymied construction for years, the California Coastal Commission on Wednesday gave Los Angeles County the green light to move forward with limited redevelopment of Marina del Rey.

After intense pressure from county officials, the commission unanimously approved a compromise plan to allow 10% of the planned redevelopment projects to proceed without the building of a controversial marina bypass roadway.

For years, a requirement that the roadway be completed first has stalled the county’s efforts to move ahead with construction of more office space, shops, restaurants, hotels, apartments and boat slips in the publicly owned marina.

County Supervisor Deane Dana hailed Wednesday’s commission’s decision as an important first step in ensuring the future of the county-owned harbor. “This gives us a real opening in every way,” he said.

Dana had told the commission, during a meeting at the marina, that approval of the compromise plan was essential to provide “a measure of revitalization necessary to keep the marina going.”

County officials have been concerned that they were falling behind Los Angeles and Culver City in what has turned into a race to gain approval for large developments along the heavily traveled Lincoln Boulevard corridor. The underlying assumption is that traffic capacity is limited, and that projects encountering long delays run a sizable risk of being preempted.

Ted Reed, director of the county’s Beaches and Harbors Department, stressed the urgency of approving the plan. “It is imperative that Marina del Rey maintain its vitality,” Reed said. “After three decades of heavy use . . . we are beginning to be a little frayed around the edges. Frankly, we are showing our age.”

Representatives of marina businesses, all of which operate on land leased from the county, joined in supporting the compromise plan.

After closed-door negotiations with the Coastal Commission’s staff during the past several months, both sides agreed to allow 10% of the so-called Phase II development to proceed without the bypass road being built.

The county’s land use plan for the marina and a revised implementation plan that was unanimously adopted Wednesday still require construction of the bypass before the remaining 90% of the redevelopment can take place.

But construction of the roadway from the western end of the Marina Expressway over Lincoln Boulevard and around the north side of the marina is considered highly unlikely because of intense opposition from residents of adjacent neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

Several residents of the area complained to the commission that the bypass remains an element of the county’s long-range plan for the marina. But the county is conducting an intensive traffic study to find alternatives to construction of the bypass, including shuttle buses, car-pooling and other incentives to cut automobile traffic.

County officials said they expect to go back to the commission next year with bypass alternatives that would allow all of the Phase II development to take place.

Altogether, the county wants to add 743 hotel rooms, 462 restaurant seats, 1,500 residential units, 200,000 square feet of offices, 14,000 square feet of commercial space and 20 acres of boat slips.

In a letter signed by all five county supervisors, the marina expansion was described as “insignificant compared to ongoing urban development surrounding the marina.” Among the major projects in the works nearby are Marina Place, a regional shopping mall at the western end of Culver City; Channel Gateway, a high-rise residential and office complex in Los Angeles, abutting the marina, and Playa Vista, a proposed city-within-a-city planned on more than 800 acres between the marina and the Westchester bluffs.

In its considerations on Wednesday, the Coastal Commission agreed to treat separately a plan to develop a 141-acre piece of property immediately south of the marina. As part of its Playa Vista development, Maguire Thomas Partners wants to build a new marina with hotels, offices, residential units and retail space on the land, which is within the boundary of the county-administered Marina del Rey.

Private negotiations have been under way for months between Maguire Thomas and the county over development plans for the property.

BACKGROUND

Marina del Rey, the world’s largest man-made small-craft harbor, is an unincorporated 804-acre community administered by Los Angeles County. The county’s longstanding plans for a second major phase of development include the addition of 743 hotel rooms, 462 restaurant seats, 1,500 residential units, 200,000 square feet of office space, 14,000 square feet of commercial space and 20 acres of boat slips.