Coastal Access on the PV Peninsula
Bravo on Ron Taylor’s very balanced “Battle for the Bluffs” (Jan. 24), about the fight for open space versus developers seeking to build hotels and golf courses on the coastline in Palos Verdes.
When a developer sees an empty parcel, he sees dollar signs; the rest of us see their overreaching as a grave threat to the coastal bluff ecosystem.
The city of Rancho Palos Verdes rubber-stamps every coastal project which comes before it, granting free reign to builders to deny coastal access.
If the city can close off a gate, or impede or limit a trail, or deny the approved land-use maps showing bluff roads and bike paths, and, in the process, humiliate and deride citizens who raise these issues, all the better.
The right of maximum access to the coastline is guaranteed to us by the California Constitution. It’s tough fighting money and the political influence it buys. But right makes might, and, in the Battle for the Bluffs, the little guy is winning.
Maybe Rancho Palos Verdes will get the picture when developers like Ken Zuckerman stop saying, “There is no environment out there to protect.” Maybe, if they stop destroying it, there will be some open space left for our grandchildren to enjoy.
JOHN P. SHARKEY
Rancho Palos Verdes
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