Wilson Seeks $656,000 to Police Coast Development : Environment: The budget increase would allow the Coastal Commission to station an enforcement official in Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s first state budget proposal would provide a shot in the arm to the California Coastal Commission’s efforts to crack down on illegal development along Ventura County’s coastline.

In the $55.7-billion state spending plan unveiled Thursday, Wilson proposed boosting the Coastal Commission’s budget by $656,000 in the fiscal year beginning July 1. Under Wilson’s plan, the commission’s new budget would be about $7.5 million.

A Coastal Commission official said a portion of the increased funding would be used to pay for stationing a full-time enforcement official in Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz. That official’s responsibility would include investigating alleged development violations along Ventura County’s coastline.

The commission now has a backlog of about 700 alleged violations awaiting investigation. For most of the past six years, however, the commission has had only one full-time investigator to look for problems along 1,100 miles of coastline. That official has been stationed in San Francisco.

Wilson’s budget proposal, which must be approved by the Legislature, signals a dramatic turnabout in gubernatorial policy toward the Coastal Commission. Created nearly 20 years ago to regulate development along the coastline, the agency was a favorite target of budget cuts for former Gov. George Deukmejian.

Deukmejian viewed the commission as an unnecessary layer of government and routinely sought to slash its budget. Last year, he vetoed a $656,000 allocation the Legislature had approved for the commission--exactly the amount Wilson has proposed adding.

Wilson rejected the suggestion that his proposal to restore the same amount of money to the panel’s budget was a rebuke of Deukmejian’s policies. Instead, the governor maintained that he and fellow Republican Deukmejian are friends but that “inevitably, old and dear friends have some policy disagreements.”

Wilson added, “I want to see (the commission) funded so it can do its job” of protecting the state’s coastline.

And he indicated that the commission could fare well in future budgets. He called his proposed increase “an initial step in providing the commission with adequate resources.”

Not surprisingly, commission staff members greeted Wilson’s proposal with enthusiasm.

“We feel it’s a significant step in rebuilding California’s coastal program,” said James W. Burns, the commission’s chief deputy director.

Burns said the spending increase would allow the commission to hire three more full-time enforcement officials to investigate complaints of illegal development along the coast. Development violations range from illegal grading of property to improper seawall construction.

Burns said that along with hiring an official whose duties would include patrolling Ventura County, another of the new investigators would probably be stationed in the commission’s Long Beach office to probe alleged coastal development violations in Los Angeles and Orange counties. “That’s where the greatest need is,” he said.

Burns added that he considered the commission’s proposed budget increase particularly significant because Wilson recommended funding reductions for several other agencies to help the state close a predicted $7-billion budget deficit.

Wilson’s proposed Coastal Commission budget was also praised by several Democratic lawmakers who represent coastal areas.

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), said, “Given the size of the budget deficit, to have any increase this year is a blessing.”

Also tucked away in Wilson’s budget proposal was a $10-million appropriation for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which purchases open space in the mountainous area. Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy’s executive director, said the bulk of the funds would be used to complete a wildlife corridor linking the Santa Monica Mountains with the Simi Hills and the Santa Susana Mountains.

The corridor would preserve migratory paths for animals such as badgers and bobcats that move between these areas, Edmiston said.