INEXPLICABLE INEPTITUDE

"Staff of the California Coastal Commission has informed the City that the Board's action violates the approved LCP. The proposed Council action would remand the issue back to the Historic Resources Board with instructions to rescind its action in light of this new information...The Board's action violates the City's approved and certified Local Coastal Program. This Program establishes a clear process for removing historic resources from the City's Inventory."
(Source: City Council Agenda Item Summary for City Council 2 May 2006 meeting, Brian Roseth, Principal Planner)

ONLY AFTER Friends of Carmel Cultural Heritage filed an appeal of the Historic Resources Board's 23 January 2006 decision to remove 43 historic properties (1940-1956) from the City's Inventory of Historic Resources...

ONLY AFTER Enid Sales, Director of the Carmel Preservation Foundation, orally expressed her concerns about the City's multiple violations of the Local Coastal Program (LCP)to the California Coastal Commissioners at their March 2006 meeting in Monterey...

ONLY AFTER Charles Lester, Deputy Director, Central Coast District Office, California Coastal Commission, made known to the Mayor, City Attorney, et al. the City's removal of 43 historic resources from the Inventory of Historic Resources was a violation of the LCP...

ONLY AFTER the extraordinary efforts of Enid Sales and Charles Lester, did the City place on the May 2006 City Council agenda the "CONSIDERATION OF REMANDING A DECISION OF THE HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD THAT REMOVED PROPERTIES FROM THE HISTORIC RESOURCES INVENTORY DEVELOPED BETWEEN 1940 AND 1956 WITH DIRECTION TO THE BOARD TO REVERSE ITS DECISION BASED ON NEW INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS."

The City's flagrant violation of the LCP substantiates Enid Sales' claims that the City has committed multiple LCP violations.

In the future, will similar extraordinary efforts have to be made in order for the City to correctly interpret and enforce the LCP? Or will the City competently interpret and enforce the LCP without the need for external intervention?