Resident continues legal fight against city over Ranch project

Laguna Beach resident Mark Fudge is not finished fighting the city and California Coastal Commission’s approval of the Ranch in Aliso Canyon.

Fudge on Wednesday appealed a Nov. 4 ruling by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge that dismissed the portion of his lawsuit claiming the city approved the hotel renovation project without adequate environmental review. The suit also names the Coastal Commission as a defendant.

Judge Richard Fruin said he dismissed the suit because Fudge did not file it in time.

The Laguna Beach Planning Commission approved the project by the Laguna Beach Golf & Bungalow Village LLC on May 23, 2014, and the city filed official notice of its decision with the county May 23.

A month later, Fudge asked the Coastal Commission to weigh in on the project but the state commission denied his request in January and approved a coastal development permit.

Fudge sued the city and the Coastal Commission on March 5, which Fruin said exceeded the 35-day window to file a petition with the court based on the May 2014 Planning Commission decision.

But according to court documents, Fudge, who has repeatedly declined to comment, claims the Planning Commission decision date is not the correct marker.

Fudge said state law sets a 60-day limit for filing suit regarding concerns with the California Environmental Quality Act and that the 60-day limit should have started April 15, 2015, “when the Coastal Commission took its final action to adopt the revised findings,” court records say.

But in his ruling last month, Fruin said the state board’s final action didn’t concern the city’s CEQA notice of exemption and since that was the action that Fudge was appealing, he should have filed his suit by June 27, 2014.

He cited a 2010 California appellate case that said the commission’s role is to review the conformity of the local government to the certified local coastal program or to the public access policies of the Coastal Act.

Fruin must still rule on whether the Coastal Commission’s decision was backed by sufficient evidence during a separate trial, though no date has been scheduled.

Fudge says an environmental impact report should have been prepared and that the city did not prove such an analysis was not needed for an area that includes Aliso Creek, which the coastal staff described as a “rare habitat” in its staff report, according to a previous Coastline Pilot story.

The city said in a letter to the Coastal Commission last year that a coastal development permit was not needed because the remodel work does not increase existing buildings’ square footage by 50% and does not remove, replace or reconstruct more than 50% of structures.

Fudge has alleged Coastal Commissioners did not disclose conversations with Laguna Beach Golf & Bungalow principal Mark Christy and his lawyer before and during the January hearing, and said such communications were illegal.

As part of the Coastal Commission’s approval, Christy agreed to pay $250,000 for a consultant to design a pedestrian and bicycle trail that will help link inland property to the coastline. Commission staff had been concerned that the project would hinder public access.