Coastal Staff Rethinks Stand on Navy Tests

California Coastal Commission staff members announced Monday that they will recommend that the commission rescind its “no-objections” ruling on a Navy proposal to fly Lear jets straight at a Silver Strand Beach radar facility.

Coastal Commission officials said they made a decision to support the reversal because they believe the Navy’s plans to simulate missile strikes on warships could interfere with recreational and commercial boating.

In particular, the commission staff report said the Navy last year had originally indicated it would allow boats to clear the 19-square-mile flight area before conducting the flight testing.

“They said they would keep the planes in a holding pattern and wait until the area is clear,” said Mark Delaplaine, the Coastal Commission’s federal consistency supervisor, in an interview. “Now that is not so clear.”

The Navy has said it will allow the flight testing to occur if there is shipping traffic, but that the aircraft would not come closer than 500 feet to the vessels.

The Coastal Commission will hold a public hearing in Carmel on April 9, when the agency will decide whether to void its “negative determination” document that last year concluded the project would not affect the coastal zone.

But Navy officials Monday maintained that nothing in their proposal has changed since the commission signed off on it last year.

Navy officials said the flights would be delayed, modified or canceled only if testing meant the planes would enter the 500-foot “safety bubble,” but that they would not be halted just if boats were in the area.

“If we encroached in that 500-foot bubble, then [the flight] would be delayed until the vessel was clear and we would proceed,” said Navy spokesman Craig Strawser.

The Navy’s plans have also angered residents in Silver Strand and other beach communities, who fear the flights could threaten their safety and lower their property values.