Plans for Beach Corridors Get Buried in Sand of Settlement

By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter

Plans by the city of Los Angeles to build a beach corridor at Will Rogers State Beach have been identified by the Palisadian-Post amid unclear rumors that such pathways were being built.

Proposed as a solution to an ongoing lawsuit between the city of LA and Venice residents seeking to lift the beach curfew, the City Attorney’s office suggested 10-foot-wide corridors providing public access to beaches in the LA area, according to city officials familiar with the project.

“The initial draft of the settlement agreement, which was entered into last September, required accessways to the ocean,” said attorney James Burgess, who represented the plaintiff.

Burgess explained that after determining such a project would require a CEQA study, or California Environmental Quality Act study, the city withdrew the idea, known as a mitigated negative declaration, and agreed to other terms instead.

But bread crumbs left behind by public records give a look into the very real consideration of the five initially proposed beach corridors, a plan the Department of Beaches and Harbors had no knowledge of at the time of this report.

With operating hours of 5 a.m. through 2 a.m., walkways aimed at increasing public access were set for Will Rogers, Ocean Front Walk, Venice Beach, Dockweiler and Cabrillo, according to documents held by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

An initial CEQA environmental study for the corridors was carried out in January but pulled from publication after the proposal was withdrawn, public records show

This leaves unanswered questions as to how those five beaches were identified and details about the size and placement of the public accessways.

But a study on beach attendance aimed at providing an “estimate of the amount of visitors that will access beach and ocean parks between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. under a proposed project to open only the wet sands areas of the beach parks to night access” was left behind.

The study shows an estimated 100 people will access Will Rogers beach between those hours and will generate approximately 82 vehicle trips to the area.

As part of the beach curfew settlement, the City Attorney’s office will “continue to seek a coastal development permit” from the Coastal Commission required to enforce such a curfew and will immediately extend operating hours on Ocean Front Walk and the Venice and Cabrillo piers from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. “until a final decision is issued on the coastal development permit,” according to court documents.

While the corridor project was formally withdrawn, such walkways could still be required by the Coastal Commission as a result of lifting the beach curfew, should they decide not to grant the City Attorney’s office with a permit.

Issues of public safety and policing are not included in documents obtained by the Post but they will be very much be on the minds of residents concerned that such pathways could undo hard-fought protections at Will Rogers.

The Coastal Commission is expected to further discuss the curfew at a late August meeting in Redondo Beach.