The Debate Over Peter Douglas

I read with interest the July 2 report regarding Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission. It is clear that after 23 years of misdirected application, a major overhaul of the Coastal Act is justified. Is Peter Douglas the right man for the job? Not based on his past performance.

Douglas has been the willing tool of a liberal Democrat majority that has dominated the actions of the Coastal Commission. As a result of his environmental and political bias in interpreting the Coastal Act and his total disregard for the rights of private property owners, Douglas and his staff of zealots have led the Coastal Commission into court with regularity. Some of these cases, such as Nolan vs. California, wherein it took the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the commission’s “taking of private property for public purposes,” are regarded as landmark cases for private property rights.

Millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted defending Douglas’ assault on the U.S. Constitution.

And finally, to accuse Republicans of “politicizing” the Coastal Commission, after years of liberal Democrat domination, is absurd.

CHARLES C. BENNETT

Huntington Beach

* Douglas Wheeler, state resources secretary, supports the removal of Douglas. Wheeler stated that the Koll Real Estate Group’s project at Bolsa Chica had consensus because the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved the project.

The Board of Supervisors is controlled by the developers. Anyone who has ever tried to appeal to the supervisors to help protect open space has hit a brick wall.

Second, on Dec. 6, 1994, the county supervisors declared the county bankrupt. On Dec. 14, 1994, the supervisors voted to pave Bolsa Chica with 3,300 houses. The county staff testified that the Koll project would cost county taxpayers, after developer fees, over $450,000 per year forever from the county general fund.

Wheeler is a public servant and he needs to get his facts straight or get a new job.

FLOSSIE HORGAN

Huntington Beach

* Wheeler confirmed that his former deputy, Carol Whiteside, is a candidate to replace Douglas.

The Coastal Commission staff led by Douglas had recommended eliminating 900 homes that would be built on the [Bolsa Chica] wetlands. Douglas said, “The reason the staff recommended no homes on the wetlands was that it was not consistent with the Coastal Act,” the state coastal protection law. Douglas said it all when he said: “It’s not our job to decide how the Coastal Act applies to a project based on agreements reached between a property owner and the county. The law has certain standards that have to be met.”

The Bolsa Chica project does not meet those standards and should have been turned down as the staff and Peter Douglas recommended.

EILEEN MURPHY

Huntington Beach