County supervisors approve Marina del Rey redevelopment; Coastal Commission has yet to rule
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to permit parking lots in Marina del Rey to be redeveloped into new apartment housing, restaurant and retail space.
DOCUMENT: Read the draft of the parking ordinance and view maps of the plans
The supervisors’ action, however, is not the final word. Changing the zoning of parking lots to permit new development must be approved by the California Coastal Commission, which has broad authority over coastal development.
The development has long been championed by Supervisor Don Knabe, whose district includes Marina del Rey. The man-made pleasure boat harbor is owned by the county, which reaps about $35 million in revenue a year from land leases to developers who operate apartment buildings, restaurants, stores and docks.
Knabe has contended that the marina is an “asset that should be the crown jewel of the county.... We need to pick up the pace,” Knabe said in 2008.
The vote came after about two hours of testimony at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration. On one side were developers and the managers of privately run boating docks, who asserted that the harbor has languished since the 1970s and needed new development to attract high-end retail and restaurants to revitalize what could become a premier tourist destination on the Pacific coast.
“This is a developer-driven plan based on developer-driven projects,” said Nancy Vernon Marino, who represents the group We Are Marina del Rey.
The marina “does not need new shopping centers. It doesn’t need a lot more car trips. Already, wildlife is getting killed trying to cross the roads in this area,” said Kathy Knight, conservation chair of the Sierra Club’s Airport-Marina Group. “Please stop overdeveloping Marina del Rey. I know it’s a cash cow ... [but] we need to start saving these ecological resources.”
DOCUMENT: Read the conservation and management plan for Marina del Rey
Jon Nahhas said reducing the number of smaller boat slips would have the effect of getting rid of entry-level boating. He found the proposal troubling considering that San Francisco will soon host the America’s Cup sailing competition.
“That’s like hosting the World Cup and then getting rid of AYSO soccer,” Nahhas said.
“What we’ll get for this is [a marina] for the super wealthy,” said Andy Bessette, president of the Marina Boatowners Assn.
Supporters, however, said the development project is long overdue.
“For many years, the marina has languished…and deteriorated due to the lack of redevelopment,” said Greg Schem, the owner and operator of the BoatYard and Del Rey Landing in Marina del Rey. “We are beginning to move down a rational path of progress.”
Schem said the creation of more boat slips for larger boats is “good public policy” because more sailors are choosing to buy larger boats.
David Barish, who also represents the group We are Marina del Rey, said he hoped to seek more changes to the county’s development plan at the California Coastal Commission.
The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission in December deleted one of the most controversial aspects of the original development plan, which would have severely reduced parking in the lot north of Mothers Beach, which is used as a launching area for canoes, kayaks and other boats.
RELATED:
Document: Marina del Rey land use plan
Differing visions for Marina del Rey’s future
Planning commission OKs Marina del Rey development
-- Rong-Gong Lin II at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration
EDITOR'S PICKS:
Supervisor Yaroslavsky was absent from the hearing...
Posted by: David Barish | February 02, 2011 at 08:48 AM
The opposition to this amendment are fully supportive of development that revitalizes the Marina and brings in revenues for the County. But it must be development that is recreation-based to meet the mandate of the Marina as a low-cost recreational and small craft harbor. Apartments and luxury senior housing on public land used for public recreation is not appropriate development.
Posted by: David Barish | February 02, 2011 at 08:51 AM
Traffic, Traffic, Traffic - that is the name for the County's plans for the Marina.
Everyone needs to know what the County plans to build:
(1) 2173 more Residential Units (3 times the size of the Marina City Club which is the 3 huge 17 floor towers located on Admiralty Way)
(2) 273,000 more sq ft of Retail space (2 times the size of newly remodeled Waterside Shopping Center located at the corner of Mindanao and Admiralty Way - and the county plans to build the new "high end" shopping center directly across the street!)
(3) 1323 more Restaurant Seats (3 times the size of the MdR Cheesecake Factory)
(4) 505 more Hotel Rooms (5 times the size of the MdR Jamaica Bay Inn which is located at Palawan and Admiralty Way)
(5) 26,000 more sq ft of Office Space (1.5 times the size of Marina Fitness Center which is located near Mother's Beach)
Where will the Traffic go? Access in and out of the Marina is limited to either Lincoln Blvd. or Washington Blvd. Both of these roads are already a nightmare to travel ... but the County does not care ... that is the City's problem.
But the sad truth is that this will also be the nightmare of everyone living in or near the Marina, or anyone coming to enjoy the pleasures of the Marina in the future.
Posted by: Jan Book | February 02, 2011 at 12:34 PM
How about a park or some green space? And, no, the beach doesn't count! I live next to Marina Del Rey, and I think the last thing that's needed is more stores or restaurants.
Posted by: Nancy Watson | February 03, 2011 at 03:12 PM
Everyone seems to be overlooking key facts (re: Marina del Rey) that should change everything. In 1984 a case went before the US Supreme Court to settle disputes about the ownership of Marina del Rey. The US Supreme Court reversed a decision of the CA Supreme Court, holding essentially, that LA (and the State of CA) do not own Marina del Rey [Summa Corp. v. Cal. State Lands Comm'n, 466 U.S. 198 (1984)]. The question in that case was whether or not the City of Los Angeles (party was later changed to the state of CA) could claim the land (where Marina del Rey is today) under the Equal Footing Claus of the U.S. Constitution, and then hold the land pursuant to the Public Trust Doctrine.
Long before CA became a state, it was written into the U.S. Constitution that whenever new states joined the Union they would enjoy control over their tidelands, and the beds to navigable rivers and inlets (or arms of the sea). Tidelands are any areas that have water on the land and that water is effected by the ebb and flow of the tide. This "tideland" boundary extends inward to where the the high water mark would be, or more precisely, at the place of the high tide mark at the moment that each state joined the union. Any lands that fall into the category of Public Trust are to be held in trust by the state who's boundary they are in, for the use and Enjoyment of Citizens from All States - thus Equal Footing. An additional provision of the US Constitution mandates: "No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another". Incidentally, recreational boating has been held, by the High Court, to fall under the protection of this law.
The only way that tidelands could not be part of a states Public Trust Lands, is in those rare circumstances when the land in question was granted out (or given or traded away) by the US Government before that precise time that a State becomes a state. Some Indian land treaties have fallen into this category precluding the states from controlling those lands. One other exception to the rule of Tidelands automatically going to the States control for the Public Trust, are any lands that were granted out as Mexican Land Grants. This is exactly what the US Supreme Court reaffirmed with their ruling in 1984 against Los Angeles and the State of California. There are no Public Trust Lands in any areas that were part of Mexican Land Grants.
Marina del Rey sits right in the middle of a Mexican Land Grant, Rancho Ballona. The US Supreme Court, in it's decision stated that the land of Marina del Rey was part of Los Angeles, or the city of Venice. Los Angeles was ordered off the land... the State of CA was ordered off the land... So how is it that the land of Marina del Rey became unincorporated? The US Supreme Court also ruled that the true owners of Marina del Rey are the decedents (or heirs) of the original grant holders. So how is it that the County of Los Angeles all of a sudden steps in and claims to own Marina del Rey?
As far as I can tell, the true owner of Marina del Rey is Fred Machado, of Culver City... He has the original grant, and the courts have held that deed of grant acts as a quit claim deed against all other claims.
Another interesting thing to note: The CA Costal Commission has no jurisdiction in Marina del Rey. The CA Costal Commission draws it's authority to act from the The Submerged Lands Act of 1953 (43 U.S.C. § 1313 exceptions to Submerged Lands Act.). Note: The submerged lands act is a very lengthy and detailed document. I wanted to be sure that I was correct in my assertion that the California Costal Commission had no jurisdiction in Marina del Rey. Just to be sure I called the Ca State REsources Department and I spoke to the top lawyer there by the name of Kirk Miller. I asked him if it was true that the Submerged Lands Act was not valid in Marina del Rey, or that Marina del Rey was exempted from the act... Mr. Miller agreed, the Submerged Lands Act does not apply in Marina del Rey, or in any area that was a Mexican Land Grant. As the Coastal Commissions of the various states derive their authority from the Submerged Lands Act, it would be then true that the California Coastal Commission should have no say, what so ever in Marina del Rey.
Well, I guess that this changes everything doesn't it
Learn to read, everyone.
Posted by: Buddy Goodman Smith | February 04, 2011 at 04:27 PM
The only green in Marina Del Rey is lining the pockets of LA County Supervisors. Wow are they corrupt. The County has become happy bedfellows with developers. They are bulldozing foward with their agenda, public be damned. What a sad day, that the public is not given a voice, and public concerns and interests remain unaddressed. If Marina Del Rey is "languished and deteriorated" it's because it has not been maintained by The County.
Posted by: Concerned Resident | February 07, 2011 at 03:13 PM