Coastal Commission to weigh Santa Monica beach concert, LCP fight Play

The city of Santa Monica had a major concert promoter asking for Coastal Commission permission to have a two-day music festival on the beach south of the Santa Monica Pier.

The promoter, Goldenvoice, wants to put up fences on about 900,000 square feet of public beach and sell about 35,000 tickets for the two-day concert. The fences would be up for nine days, just south of the pier.

The California Coastal Commission will vote on the request next week at its meeting in San Diego.

The Coastal Commission and Santa Monica are in the midst of a quiet but intense battle over Santa Monica's beaches and downtown area. Under the state Coastal Act, local cities are supposed to prepare an LCP — a local coastal plan — for the Coastal Commission to approve.

Santa Monica doesn't have an LCP, and the Coastal Commission and Santa Monica are battling over just what the coastline should look like down there. Santa Monica's current City Council has shifted to much more pro-development, and they are talking about putting in some intensive residential development along the beach.

Santa Monica officials are also expressing great frustration about having to ask for Coastal Commission approval for things like big electronic science signs near the pier, liquor license zones in downtown Santa Monica, and other development.

Santa Monica has had almost 50 years to draw up an LCP. But it hasn't, leaving Santa Monica to have to run to the Coastal Commission for even minor issues — like getting Baywatch a permit to film on the beach. That issue goes before the Coastal Commission in San Diego next week, also.

The fight between Coastal and Santa Monica has gotten so bad that a state Assembly bill, to exempt Santa Monica from Coastal Commission control, has passed through the Assembly and is now being voted on by the state Senate. But the bill was just amended with a poison pill which would simply ban all development in Santa Monica for two years.

Assembly member Rick Zbur says his amendment is meant as an incentive for the city and Coastal Commission to agree on an LCP that gives Santa Monica greater authority over projects in its coastal zone.

Long-time Malibu residents might remember when the California legislature forced an LCP onto the city of Malibu 22 years ago, in a similar power play.