Coastal Commission Postpones Hearing Marina Redevelopment Proposal

The panel will not consider a major redevelopment proposal in Marina del Rey during its June meeting due to staffing constraints and will probably hear it in October.

The California Coastal Commission has postponed consideration of a major redevelopment plan for Marina del Rey that was expected to be heard during a June public meeting in the marina. It will probably be considered in October, officials said Friday. The state agency cited staffing constraints as the reason for the postponement, said Debbie Talbot, a spokeswoman for the county's Department of Beaches and Harbors. The California Coastal Commission has final authority over coastal development and it was widely expected that it would consider the Marina del Rey Local Coastal Plan Major Amendment during its June meeting at the Marina del Rey Hotel. The major amendment is a long-term redevelopment and land-use plan that changes zoning rules in …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (1)

Marina del Paul

Last Chance to Save Marina del Rey

Time is running out for small boaters.

Michael Bennett made his mark as a distributor of first rate instructional boating videos. When I found out that he was the skipper of a 32-foot Kettenburg sloop in Marina del Rey, I asked him if he realized that the new Local Coastal Plan for the marina would eliminate more than 800 slips for boats under 35 feet. He reacted with shock. “That will totally undercut the starter boat market,” he said. “How will people ever graduate to bigger vessels if you eliminate the smaller slips?” Many boaters with whom I talk have no idea that Marina del Rey will change forever if the Local Coastal Plan passed by the L. A. County Supervisors is finally approved by the California Coastal Commission. The plan as now approved contradicts the original …

•  3 Comments
• Photos (1)

Marina del Paul

'Restrict the Marina to the Wealthy Plan' Will Be Considered by Los Angeles County Supervisors

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will consider a major redevelopment plan for Marina del Rey next week at a downtown meeting.

If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people who has ever enjoyed boating out of Marina del Rey, your ability to affordably continue to do so is severely threatened. Yet few seem to either realize or care enough to object. At one meeting with county officials that I attended at the Burton Chace Park Community Room, less than a dozen boaters showed up to complain about the major redevelopment projects the county is pushing that will forever alter the character of Marina del Rey. Marina del Rey was publicly financed, according to House Document 389, to make boating “available to the largest number of boatowners and potential owners in southern California at the least cost." Yet the current plan will evict hundreds of paying boat …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (1)

Marina del Paul

Marina del Rey at a Crossroads

Proposed changes to the marina's local coastal plan threaten the marina as we know it.

Is Marina del Rey slated to become a waterfront theme park? Or will it continue to fulfill its original purpose as a recreational boating harbor, now the biggest in the world? The new Marina del Rey Local Coastal Plan, which will be considered Wednesday by the county's regional planning committee, trades land development for the interests of the public for which the marina was built, boaters who love the sea. Go back 50 years to the legislation that established the small boat harbor at Playa del Rey inlet in Venice, California.  The intent was to "Provide all necessary slips, and slip facilities for the repair, service and supply of small craft on terms reasonable and equal to all …" "The harbor would be built almost wholly for the benefit…

•  5 Comments
• Photos (3)