Legislation by a local assemblyman to “save” beach bonfires along the coast is dead … at least for this year.
Assembly Bill 1102 by Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) was aimed at thwarting efforts by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to move or eliminate hundreds of fire rings, a notion that had been put in motion by the Newport Beach City Council following complaints by beach-side residents.
Last week, the Senate Committee on Appropriations chose to hold AB 1102, which essentially means it's dead this year.
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“With the decision today of the Democrats to side with the SCAQMD in holding AB 1102, they sent the message that politics trumps the voice of the people,” says Allen in an article he “released” to Orange County Breeze (“News of Northwest Orange County, CA”).
But Allen vows to continue the fight, noting that his legislation delayed SCAQMD plans to monkey with the coastal fire pits.
Of course, Allen is going to need some help. As the Breeze article notes in its conclusion, he would have to be re-elected in November to be in a position to reintroduce AB 1102 next year.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.