NEW LEADER TAKES HELM AS CARETAKER OF STATE'S COAST

Look at Lawson's Landing at the mouth of Tomales Bay in Marin County to see what the California Coastal Commission needs to achieve, says the new leader of the agency that oversees the state's 840-mile coastline. "That's a good example of where the commission went to great lengths to strike the right balance," said Charles Lester, 49, who was named the commission's executive director in September.

He is taking over from Peter Douglas, who headed the commission since 1985 and co-wrote the 1972 ballot initiative that created it. Douglas, whose retirement begins next month, is battling lung cancer.

Sonoma County's Sea Ranch development, where coastal access was a key point of argument, helped spur the movement that led to the commission.

Today, Lester said, the same issues resound.

"The vast majority of us don't live along the immediate shoreline, so therefore we need to make those opportunities available to everyone," he said.

Defending the environment from population and development pressures remains an equally crucial battle, he said.

At the longtime blue-collar resort of Lawson's Landing, Lester said the task was finding a balance "between preserving shorelines access for a wide range of visitors and across a wide range of classes, but also to protect our vital resources."

The issues at Lawson's, a 960-acre property that includes environmentally sensitive dunes and wetlands, involved an unpermitted, low-cost recreational area where private trailers were parked year-round on a prized slice of coast.

Commissioners ordered the trailers be removed but gave a five-year grace period to do that. After that, about 200 trailers will be allowed on the property but must be made available to the general public.

Though many of the trailer owners and the property's owners decried the order -- saying it was unfair and would put the resort out of business -- Lester said it achieved twin objectives.

He defines one as "how to make shoreline access and resources available to those citizens who can't afford five-star hotels" -- and the other, as preserving delicate natural habitats.

"That was very much the other side of the equation in Lawson's Landing," Lester said, "making sure we protect and hopefully enhance environmentally sensitive areas -- wetlands and creeks and riparian areas."

A factor that will play a larger role, he said, is rising sea levels due to climate change; some projections are that the ocean will rise 4 1/2 feet over the next 100 years.

"This is going to exacerbate issues we've struggled with already, particularly in urban areas where there is a conflict between pre-existing development and shoreline levels," Lester said.

Addressing that threat will require close cooperation with the 76 local governments with which the commission works, especially as they redraw the mandated Local Coastal Program plans that were adopted in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In Sonoma County, which is updating its coastal program plan now, Gleason Beach and Highway 1 will be among the major issues, Lester said.

At the beach on a soaring bluff halfway between Bodega and Jenner, the relentless push of ocean waves has eaten away at a strip of million-dollar coastal homes, rendering eight unlivable.

Erosion has eaten away at many stretches of the scenic Highway 1, as well, and Lester said that "potentially realigning the highway" is under consideration.

"We think that the coastal act would ideally imagine that we would retreat from the shoreline as it continues to erode away as opposed to armoring the shorelines in what ultimately will be a losing cause," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer

Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.