The agenda for this month's Coastal Commission session, which starts tomorrow, calls for one big bookend and a lively pile of locally debated items. [Updates added below 7/9/14]

The bookend is the Santa Monica Mountains Local Coastal Plan (LCP). After decades of false starts and uncertainty, and a stormy April approval of the policy-level Land Use Plan (see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3474), the July agenda calls for finally sewing up the LCP by approving its final local implementation ordinances. If and when that work is done, Los Angeles County will finally receive delegated authority over coastal building permits in the steep, expensive and environmentally fragile canyon country above Malibu.

Fewer issues remain to resolve than in April. The staff recommendation calls for a thicket of changes to the Local Implementation Plan (LIP) but many are procedurally required to resolve settled matters, simply because the LIP draft currently before the Commission is still the one that LA County submitted before the Commission made changes at its April hearing. Areas to be reconciled include a "special compliance program" spelling out a relatively gentle process to bring the mountains' long-established equestrian facilities up to Coastal Commission code.

The agenda item is 15a on the Thursday calendar currently at http://coastal.ca.gov/mtgcurr.html.

Because nothing coastal is ever particularly over, there's a Malibu LCP amendment on the same part of the agenda. But it's comparatively a minor one.

More significantly, an LCP amendment in Ventura would allow for new development on the 11-acre waterfront "Triangle Site". Commission staff are recommending major changes to the proposed amendment on several Coastal Act compliance grounds, with special concern for keeping some coastal overnight visits affordable. The staff report does not mention specific hotel development plans but does say the proposal would allow a 210-room hotel to be built, and calls for a $1.8 million mitigation fee based on that room count. Development plans for the site have been debated locally for years.

Elsewhere on an agenda packed with small intense items, Google is proposing an office building remodel in the city of Venice; the Santa Monica Place Bloomingdale's wants to turn space on its third floor into a movie multiplex; and Commission staff want Donald Trump's golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes to scale back its 70-foot flagpole (see http://bit.ly/1zn7QoU).

[Update 7/9/14: As of 10 a.m., the Santa Monica Place and Google items have been approved on the consent calendar. Donald Trump's golf course and flagpole are up next. If you've got time to watch, live video is available via http://coastal.ca.gov/mtgcurr.html]

[Update 7/9/14: After two hours of debate and many mutual protestations of patriotism, the project proponents agreed to withdraw the flagpole portion of their proposal for the present. The Commission approved the rest, which calls for uncontroversial projects including a driving range. The Commission will consider waiving or reducing the fee -- otherwise potentially $500,000 -- to bring back an LCP revision to legalize the 70-foot flagpole, which has been in place without a permit for years.]

Strategic Growth Council meets July 10 on cap-and-trade funds

The League of California Cities notes at http://bit.ly/1jm08qB that the Strategic Growth Council will open discussion in a July 10 meeting on how to allocate the $130 million in cap-and-trade funds that it was given to administer under the 2014-15 state budget. The agenda, at http://www.sgc.ca.gov/docs/July_10_Council_Agenda.pdf, includes an action item on delegation of powers. A brief staff report describes the statutory framework for the allocations at http://www.sgc.ca.gov/docs/Agenda_Item3_AHSC_Admin_Staff_Report.pdf. It notes that applicable law requires half of all Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities funds to be used "to provide housing opportunities for lower income households."

A brief staff recommendation calls for the SGC to delegate powers to the state Department of Housing and Community Development to "implement the housing, transportation and infrastructure components of this program," and to delegate program components involving agricultural land preservation to the state Natural Resources Agency or Department of Conservation. The recommendation concludes: "This implementation will include, but not [be] limited to, working with the Council to develop program guidelines including grants and loans, evaluating applications, preparing agreements, monitoring agreement implementation, reporting and amendments."

For prior coverage of the cap-and-trade budget agreement see http://www.cp-dr.com/articles/node-3509.

Westlands Water District contracts found exempt from CEQA

California's Fifth Appellate District approved the Westlands Water District's 2012 renewal contracts with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, saying the changes they represented were exempt from CEQA review sought by environmentalist challengers. Per the decision's text, Westlands serves 600,000 acres of San Joaquin Valley farmland and has held rights over about 1 million annual acre-feet of federal Central Valley Project water. The case is North Coast Rivers Alliance v. Westlands Water District. The July 3 ruling is at http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/F067383.PDF.

Cupertino General Plan amendments out for review

Proposed General Plan and housing element updates for the city of Cupertino are available for comment through August 1. Mercury News coverage is at http://bit.ly/1md0IpV and the plan revision site is at http://www.cupertinogpa.org/. Goals of the housing element include energy conservation and encouraging mixed-use development to work toward the city's Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) goal of 1064 housing units at different levels of affordability. Issues at the most recent study session in April included whether second units at existing single-family houses are an appropriate way to meet affordable housing goals, or what can be done to encourage mixed-use development and construction of small, affordable apartments. A staff commentary said only 31 second units had been built in Cupertino in the past seven years.

San Pablo Avenue plan goes to hearings

An Oakland Tribune report at http://bit.ly/1lRMNRf sets the stage for tomorrow night's public meeting on the draft EIR for the San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan. A collaborative effort between El Cerrito and Richmond, the plan would call for landscaping, polishing and pedestrian/bike amenities along 2.5 miles of commercial corridor.
 
San Joaquin COG approves transportation plan

The Stockton Record has details at http://bit.ly/1mFODuJ on an $11 billion transportation plan adopted by the San Joaquin Council of Governments. Following new sustainability requirements, the plan proposes to protect 10,000 acres of prime farmland, add bike lanes, improve sidewalks and expand transit. The Regional Transportation Plan can be viewed under "Programs" at http://www.sjcog.org/DocumentCenter/Index/20.

Moscone Center expansion nearing approval

A plan to expand San Francisco's Moscone Center and environs, mostly upward along Howard Street, has SF Chronicle reviewer John King encouraged about recent plan revisions at http://bit.ly/1mbGo37. However, minutes from the June 5 Planning Commission meeting say John Elberling of the community development nonprofit TODCO told commissioners to "mitigate or litigate" pedestrian safety aspects.

The current plan would raise heights and densities but would humanize streetscapes, at least by comparison with earlier designs. Moscone Center is part of the Yerba Buena complex occupying the large city blocks north and south of Howard Street between Third and Fourth Streets in San Francisco's downtown South of Market neighborhood. The complex at present invites approach only from a few directions, mostly through its landscaped northeastern corner at Mission and Third. It presents less welcoming walls to the public along much of its perimeter. When those walls were built, they faced into poorer parts of South of Market. While the neighborhood still harbors residents at many income levels, Moscone Center is now at the center of San Francisco's tech-driven real estate boom, and the Fourth Street subway extension is under construction along its west edge.

The SF Business Times described commercial hopes for the expanded convention facilities at http://bit.ly/1n350NX. More recently Andrew Ross of the SF Chron's editorial page did the same at http://bit.ly/1znmLj8. A city tourism press release said construction was expected to begin this December: http://bit.ly/1mde45H
The Planning Commission reviewed but did not vote on the plan June 5. Minutes from that hearing, with a link to detailed agenda packet materials, are at http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=3857. The comment period closed June 16. The official expansion site is at http://mosconeexpansion.com/. Direct links to the EIR are at http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=1828.

The Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, which includes TODCO, had posted criticisms of the original Moscone Center expansion plan at http://bit.ly/1s2753s, including an argument that the plan did too little for existing pedestrian safety and sidewalk crowding. TODCO's own less specific proposals for the area, including Moscone Center, are at http://www.todcocentralsomacommunityplan.org/our-plan/.

TODCO's role is historically resonant because it owes its creation to the 40-year-old conflict over demolitions of low-income and last-resort housing at the Yerba Buena site, which had been San Francisco's Skid Row. The organization now primarily owns and works with affordable housing properties but it also has taken a role urging protections for existing low-income residents in the city's transportation-focused "Central SoMa Plan" for the South of Market area from Moscone Center west to Sixth Street. (See http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=2557.) 

A separate group, Save Yerba Buena Gardens, posted a statement this week at http://www.saveyerbabuenagardens.org/ saying it may seek signatures for a ballot measure protecting the public park that was built as part of the site's 20th-century redevelopment on the north side of the Yerba Buena complex.

And as you've probably heard by now:

  • The Oakland City Council will vote July 29 on whether to take the new Oakland A's Coliseum deal. Council members are divided on whether to approve the plan, and local officials disagree on whether the Council even has power to stop it. The plan won approval from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority board after owner Lew Wolff threatened to take his team elsewhere. For San Francisco Chronicle coverage see http://bit.ly/U1HDMf.
  • Legislators are still negotiating possible revisions to the much-criticized $11 billion water bond measure, first drafted in 2009, that is still scheduled to appear on this November's state ballot. The statutory deadline has passed for new November ballot measures, but the Bee reports in a helpful background piece at http://bit.ly/1stbs4g that waivers are possible to swap in a fresher, possibly more popular proposal.
  • The Mercury News reported at http://bit.ly/1kyGqmk that the city of Milpitas has won a court ruling that will delay construction of a trench for the BART transit extension into Silicon Valley. The city opposes the transit project's proposed closure of a major local artery, Dixon Landing Road.
  • The State Water Resources Control Board has already taken up administration of the state's drinking water under authority transferred to it from the Department of Public Health by a state budget bill. For materials on the transition see http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/drinkingwater/index.shtml. Per the Association of California Water Agencies, long-term drinking water administrator Cindy Forbes has been transferred from the old office to the new one, now to serve as deputy director of the State Water Board's Division of Drinking Water. (See http://bit.ly/1nbt8Rt.)
  • Business groups and legislators campaigned intensely in early July against a fuels element of the California cap-and-trade program that they call a hidden gas tax. See http://bit.ly/1lCAgkK for San Bernardino Sun coverage of an Ontario press conference last week. The Sacramento Bee at http://bit.ly/1vmj4FA has more on the industry lobbying origins of the campaign.