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City says it wont meet deadline on surf gangs illegal fort
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PALOS VERDES ESTATES  (AP) — A Southern California city told the state Coastal Commission it won’t meet a deadline to tear down an illegal beach structure used by territorial surfers accused of harassing anyone else who tries to ride the waves in a local bay.
The commission this week told Palos Verdes Estates it has until July 6 to develop a plan to tear down the crudely built covered deck that sits on public land. If it doesn’t, the commission said, the city must make the structure open to non-locals.
Coastal Commission Enforcement Officer Jordan Sanchez wrote in his original report about Lunada Bay access problems that the city should make a plan that “clearly identifies, through signage at major streets, at the coastline, and on trail maps, the structure as a public amenity and open to all.”
But city manager Anton Dahlerbruch instead promised only a beach cleanup and said he hoped to develop a preliminary plan for the deck by September — seven months after the coastal commission first raised the issue, and two months past the state’s deadline, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
Noaki Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the commission, said the agency had no immediate response to Dahlerbruch’s letter of non-compliance.
A class-action lawsuit filed in March asks a federal judge to prevent the group of surfers known as the Lunada Bay Boys from congregating at beaches in the wealthy city south of Los Angeles. The suit also targets the city, asking a judge to require officials to investigate and prosecute any crimes committed by the group of surfers.
Authorities have been accused of looking the other way as the gang threatened non-local surfers, tossed rocks at them and vandalized their cars — sometimes coordinating the attacks with walkie-talkies.
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