San Clemente City Announces Coastal Commission Hearing To Deny Land Use Plan Amendment

Press release from the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce:

August 07, 2020

City of San Clemente 910 Calle Negocio, San Clemente, California 92672 (949) 361-8200 FAX (949) 361-8283 PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Cecilia Gallardo-Daly, Community Development Director (949) 361-6106, or

Leslea Meyerhoff, Local Coastal Program Manager (760) 845-8028

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 6 2020…San Clemente, California…The City announces that the California Coastal Commission (Commission) is scheduled to conduct a public hearing on August 13, 2020 to deny the City’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) Land Use Plan Amendment (LUPA). The singular focus of the City’s LUPA is to clarify that, for purposes of the LUP definition of “Major Remodel,” the City will begin calculating cumulative changes to existing structures as of August 2018, the date the “Major Remodel” definition was added to the LUP.

The City submitted the LUPA to the Commission for processing in December 2018 at the direction of the San Clemente City Council. The LUPA was a response to significant public concern related to the definition of Major Remodel, which requires cumulative changes to existing structures be tracked retroactively back to 1977. The Commission public hearing is scheduled to be heard at a virtual meeting on August 13, 2020. The Commission staff recommendation is for the Commission to deny the City’s LUPA. In addition to recommending City of San Clemente 910 Calle Negocio, San Clemente, California 92672 (949) 361-8200 FAX (949) 361-8283

that the 1977 date remain as the effective date for tracking changes to existing structures, the Commission staff recommendation goes a step beyond the matter at hand and asks that the Commission define “existing structures” to mean structures constructed before 1977 that have since undergone less than 50 percent structural alterations. The suggested modifications proposed by Commission staff state that unless a structure is defined as “existing” it will be denied shoreline protection rights provided in Coastal Act section 30235.

“The City is firmly opposed to the Commission staff recommendation and suggested modifications. By defining what is ‘existing,’ the Commission staff has commandeered the City’s simple request and steered it into a whole other direction. Commission staff has reinserted a policy that the Commission voted to remove from the City’s LUP when it was certified in 2018,” states Community Development Director Cecilia Gallardo-Daly. Coastal staff’s recommendation and suggested modifications are contrary to the action the Commission took in 2018, and not consistent with actions the Commission has taken on other LCP’s, where the date for tracking cumulative changes to structures is date of the LUP’s certification, not 1977.

“The Commission staff is again recommending that any shoreline, bluff or coastal canyon property that has gone through a ‘Major Remodel’ or was new construction built between 1977 and 2018 has no rights to bluff or shoreline protection. This is an unacceptable and illegal requirement that the City fought against two years ago, and will again,” states Ms. Gallardo-Daly.

This press release was produced by the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.