LONG BEACH : City Sues Coastal Agency to Enforce Beach Curfew
The city of Long Beach filed suit Monday against the California Coastal Commission, alleging that the agency does not have the authority to keep the city from imposing an early curfew on its beaches.
Citing crime, the Long Beach City Council voted in June to expand its beach curfew by two hours, to run from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. But the commission told Long Beach officials last month that the new hours--and the city’s original midnight curfew--violated state law guaranteeing public access to state beaches.
Last week, Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas said the city’s original curfew--from midnight to 5 a.m.--could stand because it had been in place long before the Coastal Act took effect in the 1970s. Long Beach officials, who still want the expanded curfew, sued in Long Beach Superior Court contending that state law gives them authority to regulate beach use to deter crime.
Coastal Commission spokesman Jack Liebster said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
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