Tiptoeing around Coastal Commission shake-up

Like a shore bird that flits along the beach, coastal cities are keeping their heads down and ducking publicity about the firing of Charles Lester, executive director of the powerful California Coastal Commission.

City leaders and business and property owners are largely avoiding the issue. Why? Because they still have to deal with the sometimes mercurial group.

But they all agree on one thing: There is another side to the story.

Despite the loud allegations from environmental groups that the dismissal was a coup for developers, insiders who know the commissioners and staff believe otherwise.

It’s not the end of environmentalism along the coast. It’s not going to change decades of good stewardship and protection. If anything, a new executive — someone with more administrative chops — will help bring much-needed professionalism to the commission, according to sources.

Cities, like businesses, need clear guidelines, timelines and expectations. They can’t have moving targets when they’re trying to plan projects.

Inexplicable delays were a known tactic of the Lester-led organization. While several people admired Lester as a person, many felt that basic processes could have been improved between the commissioners and staff.

In Laguna Beach, at least one city councilwoman went on the record as supporting the commission’s role. Toni Iseman, who was a commissioner from 2003 to 2005, said it’s a tough job because members of the panel are trying to protect the coast while having to compromise on some development.

“Do I think the coast of California will be ruined without the Coastal Commission? Absolutely,” she said. “They are essential.”

Several projects still in the works in Orange County could be affected by any change in the commission. They include the proposed Huntington Beach desalination project and the Banning Ranch development in Newport Beach.

In the meantime, the fact is most people love to hate the commission, and perhaps it’s because everyone resents its power.

Mark Christy, a local businessman and new owner of The Ranch at Laguna Beach, had to jump through several hoops to revitalize his golf course and hotel property. Not surprisingly, there was nothing for him to gain — and everything to lose — by weighing in.

“I’m sorry, but I have no comment on the CCC actions,” he said.

In Huntington Beach, where Poseidon Water is hoping to build the desalination plant, the company’s vice president, Scott Maloni, wrote in an email Tuesday that he had “no comment on the Coastal Commission’s internal personnel matters.”

The company is awaiting approval for the controversial project from the Coastal Commission.

In theory, the commission seems like a good thing. Admittedly, over the last 30-plus years it has done some great work. It has also gotten involved with some petty squabbles that should have been handled at the city level.

It was formed in 1972 as an independent, quasi-judicial state agency that has sweeping powers to help protect California’s immense coast. Its successes include more public beach access, wetland restoration and the whale tail vanity license plate.

Critics, however, say it often goes rogue and oversteps its boundaries, preventing thoughtful local development.

But, again, there are good intentions. Back to Iseman.

“If we didn’t have a Coastal Commission, the developers would have come in long ago and overturned the Laguna Beach City Council,” she said. “We would have lost our height limit. We would have an increase in density. We would be building on the hills. Our town wouldn’t be the same.

“All of that stuff would have happened if they didn’t know that the Coastal Commission had our back. And I believe the commission will continue to do their mission and that is to protect the California coast.”

So what happened then with Lester, his staff and the commissioners? Basically, enough commissioners just got fed up.

When you play a game together, you have to actually communicate. You explain the rules and play by those rules.

Most of all, you share. You share information, strategy and tactics. You trust each other to do the right thing when your back is turned.

There is an expression that an enemy of an enemy is a friend. With the Coastal Commission, it seemed as if everyone was the enemy.