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Posted on 01/14/2003 7:07:05 AM PST by sfwarrior
Californians love their coast, all 1,100 miles of it. They like it open and free, without any of those nasty oil rigs and other major developments encumbering their views.
The state's voters created the California Coastal Commission in 1972 to regulate development and preserve the coastal environment, but the Coastal Commission hit a gnarly wave when a state appeals court ruled just three weeks ago that the commission itself is unconstitutional. Bummer, dude.
The ruling involved a French marine scientist, a new design for an artificial reef, a hard-working environmental group, rubber tires and the commission's abuse of power. It all started when Rodolphe Streichenberger founded the Marine Forests Society, a nonprofit foundation based in Newport Beach that has many enthusiastic volunteers committed to ocean restoration.
Streichenberger, who had studied the total deterioration of California's once-flourishing reef habitat and researched how to restore marine life in general and shellfish in particular, wanted to create underwater forests of marine life within the dead coastal zones. He concluded that shellfish have a vital function in developing growth in marine ecosystems and determined that rebuilding a shellfish habitat can restore the balance of living organisms that help create the ocean's ecosystem. Similarly, Streichenberger believes that when shellfish populations are depleted, the natural ecological balance of marine habitat is simultaneously and irreparably damaged, resulting in the disappearance of the dependent plant and fish life.
Further study led him to conclude that the shellfish depletion was a major factor causing the destruction of more than 90 percent of California's natural sea-life habitat. This ecosystem had once provided shelter, food and spawning grounds for bountiful fish populations. Streichenberger believed that, although rebuilding these natural habitats, like reefs, could take hundreds of years, the lost marine forests could be re-created through planting of cultivated artificial reefs. He decided to bring his first experimental reef project to the nutrient-rich, sandy shores near Newport Beach.
Streichenberger hadn't planned on the intractability of the allegedly pro-environmental Coastal Commission, however. He received approval from Newport Beach officials and a lease from the state Department of Fish and Game, but the commission wanted no part of it and in 1993 determined that the project violated the Coastal Act. What kind of commission could reason that a nonprofit and non-government-funded reef-restoration project is a violation of its mandate? Go figure.
Surprisingly, the Coastal Commission refused to give the Marine Forests Society a permit to help restore sea life. This was one of the first marine coastal-restoration projects even considered by the commission, which normally just approves building permits on land. Whether this denial was due to the commission's pro-development makeup or because the society was not making the right campaign donations to the right politicians, we'll never know.
In 1993, the Marine Forests Society's volunteers planted the first artificial reef some 300 meters off the Balboa Peninsula, near Newport Beach. The project built the artificial reef with used tires -- which are not toxic when immersed in seawater -- placed in long rows and then attached to the sandy bottom. Vertical columns of floating plastic tubes were then connected to the tires. Shellfish such as mussels, as well as seaweed, were then placed within this structure.
Within time, other marine species flourished in the new habitat. Several years later, the Marine Forests Society announced that its Newport Beach experiment "supports a higher density of marine life than has ever been seen on any artificial reef previously built in California. " Streichenberger suggested that this process could have a dramatic impact if replicated throughout California. But the reward for his inventiveness and hard work in this field was not a grant from the Coastal Commission nor a Nobel prize. It was a lawsuit.
After it was denied the permit, the Marine Forests Society sued, asserting, among other charges, that the Coastal Commission itself was unconstitutional. Fat chance, you might think. But ol' Neptune must have been smiling on the Marine Forests Society, because the Third District Court of Appeals agreed with the organization. The court ruled that because the commission is an executive body with executive powers, it could not have a... READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE!
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It would be very nice if they could be ruled unconstitutional.
Just as long as the elitist, wealthy friends of Blackout Davis who live in Malibu don't have to see or be concerned about common people mucking about on their ocean view. Streisand has far more important things to worry about besides constantly shooing little people from her beach! BTW, is it true that her husband is fooling around with the young woman who was walking her dog?
If you woke up with that B*&ch every morning wouldn't you. Also, with a nose like hers, if she could bend over that far, who would need a man around the house.
This may turn out to be a very big deal!
I think this was the area that Davis used to get his start in politics!
Others know much more about this than I.
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