Marina is considering a zoning code change that could complicate Cal Am’s slant wells.

As California American Water continues running the gauntlet of opposition it faces over its proposed desalination project in Marina – Marina Coast Water District and the city have both sued the California Public Utilities Commission over the its Sept. 13 approval the project – the city of Marina is poised to throw some more spikes in the road.

On Nov. 8, the Marina Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council amend the city’s local coastal plan – which is under the purview of the California Coastal Commission, and dictates allowed uses in the coastal zone – to eliminate sand mining as an allowed use, and to stipulate that the property be designated for conservation, habitat restoration and recreation.

Ostensibly, the city is taking the action to align the coastal plan with conditions set out in a 2017 settlement agreement between the Coastal Commission and Cemex, which mines sand in a lagoon on Marina’s coast on a property that has been mined for sand since 1906. (Under the agreement, Cemex agreed to cease mining sand on the property by the end of 2020.)

But that settlement also stipulated that the agreement was not intended to interfere with any existing easements on the property, and Cal Am acquired a permanent easement from Cemex in May to continue using the property in perpetuity for its slant wells.

In a Sept. 11 letter to the Marina Planning Commission, Kevin Kahn, a district supervisor with the Coastal Commission, writes, “We do not think it appropriate at this time to attempt to amend the [local coastal plan] in a way that could prejudice that process.”

Cemex and attorneys for Cal Am also sent letters in protest.

If City Council approves the amendment, expected to appear on the Dec. 4 agenda, it would then also need to be approved by the Coastal Commission. The commission is also expected to consider approving permits for Cal Am’s project some time in 2019.