By VCPUCC Spokesperson
A posse from the Venice Coalition to Preserve our Unique Community Character (VCPUCC) headed to Long Beach in the early hours of March 12 to ask the California Coastal Commission (CCC) to reconsider the “de minimis waiver” process that allows coastal development permits to bypass the full City Planning process.

The group of about a dozen VCPUCC members lined up early outside the CIty of Long Beach council chambers, where the CCC monthly meeting was being held. Each member of the group filled out a speaker card to speak during public comment at the meeting.

Competition from other groups to speak during public comment was stiff, and as so many speaker cards were submitted, and there was only 30 minutes total available for everyone to speak, only one of the group got to speak at the beginning of the meeting.

However, there was an opportunity to speak on two agenda items later in the day that were Venice de minimis waiver applications. The VCPUCC group spoke on both items and persuaded the Coastal Commission to deny all the March 2014 de minimus waivers, and to pull the waiver process from Venice completely, which means proposed developments have to go through the whole City Dept. of Planning (CDP) process.

This is good news because, in the past, developers could apply to the CCC for a de minimis waiver and bypass the laborious City Planning process. Now, they will have to present their projects to the community, go through Land Use and Planning Committee (LUPC) and Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) screening process and, finally, have a City Planning public hearing before being given the green light to build.

As many of us know, LUPC and City Planning are part of the problem. We need to monitor both entities to keep tabs on how they are processing developer applications and issuing permits.

We also need to be vigilant about developments springing up in our neighborhoods.