When Will Voters Get to Decide on Harbor Zoning?

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled that the city of Redondo Beach must put its harbor zoning ordinance on the ballot. When voters will get to have their say and what the exact ballot language will be isn't clear yet.

Residents who are a part of Building a Better Redondo, which filed and won the  lawsuit that prompted Judge Robert O'Brien's ruling last week, want the question placed on the November ballot when a greater voter turnout is expected than in a special December election.

However, that may not be feasible, according to city officials.

O'Brien ruling said the city must put the entire zoning ordinance in front of voters and not just a companion document. Zoning changes made through the years without California Coastal Commission certification are not valid, the judge said.

That put the City Council at a loss Tuesday as to what sort of zoning is in place along the waterfront by default now because changes in '05 and '08 did not have coastal certification.

Looking for clarification from the judge, City Attorney Mike Webb said he filed objections Monday, and the City Council is scheduled to convene for a special meeting Thursday at 5 p.m. 

It's important to know the legal zoning map of the city , city officials said, because voters will be presented with a choice: the proposed changes or the current state of zoning. Webb said it may very well be that in light of the judge's ruling the official zoning of the harbor areas is what was in place in 1964.

Some wondered if the Heart of the City zoning from 2002 was in effect. The city proposed and then pulled the plug on the massive redevelopment plan, which upset many residents. On Tuesday, the City Council did not believe Heart of the City was in effect as a result of the judge's ruling, although a coastal commission report from a few years ago did say the dense Heart of the City zoning was in effect even after the plan was rescinded.

"There's been bad zoning in the past," Jim Light, president of Building a Better Redondo, told the City Council on Tuesday's meeting.

Building a Better Redondo began gathering citizen input on major land use changes for the harbor four years ago with Measure DD, which called for citizen approval and was passed with 58 percent of the vote in November 2008. Measure DD was approved after the City Council had already green-lighted zoning changes to allow 400,000 square feet of development at King Harbor. City officials in April agreed to put the land use plan on the ballot but not the specific zoning changes, maintaining that they didn't have to put the zoning question to the voters because Measure DD passed after the zoning changes were already made.

However, O'Brien ruled otherwise, saying zoning regulations before certification from the state commission amounted to "contemplated legislation."

"I am ecstatic with the judge's decision," said Light. "Now the residents of Redondo will finally get the vote we have fought so hard for since 2006.  This is a great victory for all the voters of Redondo."

The city's planning department must also perform traffic studies near the AES Southland plant before crafting the ballot question, and with county deadlines for ballot language and traffic analysis this month, city officials say it's possible Redondo voters will have to wait to vote on the issue until December.

The City Council plans to make a decision Thursday about when to put the matter on the ballot.