Protecting Land In Public Trust

Last week a wrong-headed and uninformed letter attempted to attack the Coronado Citizens for Transparent Government’s successful environmental court challenge of the proposed golf course sewage plant. The author of the letter dismissed the environmental concerns of the overwhelming number of Coronado citizens who submitted comments, and repeated the canard that we must build the sewage plant to prevent the Port District from building a thousand housing units on the golf course. In January, this same author attacked Coronado Cays residents who expressed concerns about the Cottages at the Cays project. He mocked their environmental concerns and claimed that the Port District can dispose of District land as it sees fit.

Instead of flippantly attacking the environmental concerns of citizens of Coronado, he should actually try to learn the law and regulations. The Port District land is held in public trust and is governed by a master plan. The master plan update (which will be certified by the California Coastal Commission within a year) provides the following:

“WLU Policy 4.1.1 There shall be no net loss of acreage designated as Recreation Open Space in a subdistrict or in a planning district if no subdistrict exists.

WLU Policy 3.1.8(A) 2. Secondary uses shall not impede, interfere, or create conflicts with the functionality of an existing or proposed primary use.”

The golf course is designated as Recreation Open Space by the Port master plan and the Cottages at the Cays land will be so designated after the current lease expires. So apart from the adverse environmental impact of these two projects, they would both also violate laws and regulations protecting land in public trust.

VOL. 113, NO. 18 - May 3, 2023