South Coast district adopts reform package. (South Coast Air Quality Management District)

St. Louis, Aug. 20 -- The South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted a report calling for sweeping air quality program reforms designed to improve the Los Angeles area's business climate.

But the district rejected several proposals described as the key elements of a long list of changes urged by a special commission appointed by the district to examine the economic impact of the agency's air pollution control program.

On an 8 to 3 vote, the South Coast district's governing board backed 35 of the 44 recommendations made recently by the Special Commission on Air Quality and the Economy. The commission conducted a series of hearings on the district's policies and regulations and their impact on the region's economy.

The reform measures had been endorsed by the district's staff, which already is implementing many of the reforms, the district said.

The district, where the nation's most stringent VOC regulations on coatings have been enacted in the last several years, has come under increasing pressure to ease the regulatory burden on industries in recession-plagued California. …