Coast Panel Adopts Rules for Beach Encroachment : Compromise: If the Newport City Council agrees, oceanfront dwellers could build on the sand for fees.

NEWPORT BEACH — The state Coastal Commission on Tuesday unanimously adopted a plan for regulating oceanfront encroachments by private property owners here, moving city officials one step closer to resolving an issue that has divided the community for nearly two years.

The commission’s decision, which came with little discussion, was one of the last hurdles confronting about 300 oceanfront homeowners who had built or were planning to extend patios, spas and decks onto public rights of way.

The plan, which must be approved by the City Council, calls for the city to pave street extensions and improve beach access for handicapped persons using fees ranging from $300 to $600 collected on encroachment permits issued by the city.

It specifies that 85% of all fees collected go into a fund to improve 33 street corners over 10 years. After the improvements are completed, the fees would be set aside for further beach improvements. The remaining 15% of the fees would go toward administrative costs.

The plan “will create equity among the involved homeowners,” said Charles Damm, director of the commission’s South Coast district, at the panel’s meeting Tuesday in San Francisco. “As it stands, only development which can be proven to have been built prior to Proposition 20 (which created the Coastal Commission in 1972) without remodeling or additions is not in violation of the Coastal Act.”

Damm and other officials said they were pleased with the commission’s vote, calling it “a reasonable and very fragile compromise.” “It’s been a long process,” Newport Beach Mayor Phil Sansone said after the action. “It shows give and take by the city and the commission.”

The illegal but commonly accepted practice of homeowners’ extending patios and decks up to 27 feet beyond their property lines came to a head last year when the commission ordered the city to extend a concrete walkway across the beach to compensate for intrusions onto public rights of way.

The suggestion outraged some members of the community, who argued that an extended sidewalk would bring increased noise and congestion.

In January, the coastal commissioners rejected a proposal similar to the one adopted Tuesday. Under that plan, the city would have allowed the encroachments up to 7 1/2 feet in the four-block area east of the Newport Pier and up to 15 feet in west Newport in exchange for annual fees ranging from $300 to $600.

But commissioners said that policy, which city officials adopted in October after a year of public hearings, did not offer sufficient compensation to the public--such as increased beach access--for extending private property onto public land.

The encroachment limits of 7 1/2 feet and 15 feet will apply to the new plan.