They are particularly concerned that a county-drafted plan will be similar to the Malibu LCP, drafted by the California Coastal Commission, and drastically restrict horses and development.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
Residents in the broad swath of unincorporated land surrounding Malibu gave an earful Saturday to the Los Angeles County planners who are beginning to draw up a Local Coastal Program for unincorporated areas in the Santa Monica Mountains coastal zone.
Some said they were particularly concerned that the county’s LCP will be similar to the recently approved Malibu LCP, and drastically restrict horses and development near arroyos or canyons considered to be environmentally sensitive by planners.
The county LCP will go before the Board of Supervisors in 2007 and the California Coastal Commission in 2008, and planners took the first step toward writing it at the first of two community workshops Saturday in Agoura Hills. “The county hopes to get back control of the coastal development permitting system and bring the entire planning process back to the local government agency,” said county planner Dave Cowardin.
Even that introduction brought a sharp retort from one audience member: “Why have you delayed this for 25 years?” asked Tino Novellino.
Cowardin explained that an attempt at writing an LCP for unincorporated Malibu was started with a 1986 county land use plan that “suffered several mis-starts, and was never submitted.”
In order for the state to accept a Local Coastal Program and return local control, the commission must accept both a land-use plan and a coastal access and environmental protection implementation plan. The county never submitted an implementation plan, so planners said it is time to restart the process.
“Now is the time to start that process again by listening to what you, the residents, have to say,” Cowardin said.
That didn’t satisfy some in attendance.
“What matter does it make what the residents say, or what the Board of Supervisors comes up with?” asked Malibu resident Anne Hoffman. “You saw what happened in Malibu, where the Coastal Commission just wrote in whatever they wanted anyway.”
Once the LCP is approved by the supervisors and the Coastal Commission, residents will no longer have to go through two separate approval procedures to build in the more than 160 square miles of land in the county’s Santa Monica Mountains coastal zone. Currently, county planning and building safety officials must approve development plans, which then go through a separate evaluation under different criteria at the Coastal Commission office in Ventura.
The affected zone stretches from Leo Carrillo State Beach in the west to Topanga Canyon in the east, and includes Decker Canyon, the summit area of Kanan Dume Road, the southern half of the Malibou Lake neighborhood and the Fernwood section of Topanga.
Not included in this area is the city of Malibu itself, which had its own LCP imposed on it by the Coastal Commission after state legislators grew weary of hearing complaints caused by a decade-long impasse between the city and the Coastal Commission. A state law was passed specifically singling out Malibu for a state-written LCP. “So many of our rights have been taken away from us, it’s ridiculous,” said one mountain resident, Annette Peterfy. “We’re all very sensitive that our properties are not overdeveloped, but the Coastal Commission is already making it impossible to have horses or to have a home.”
Although horses are a traditional part of the mountain lifestyle, water experts are pointing to horse corrals in canyon bottoms as a significant source of the material that washes downstream and causes bacterial growth in creeks and the ocean.
Horse owners and L.A. County fought a bitter battle over corral restrictions when the county drew up regional plans for the northern half of the Santa Monica Mountains several years ago.
“In the North Area Plan, the county just walked all over us,” said Debbie DiMascio, a Monte Nido resident. She said she fears that Coastal Commission policies will be even more restrictive, and noted that some state rulings have already forced some Monte Nido equestrian owners to give up their animals.
But many of the same residents who criticized the current regulations said they were unhappy with recent development trends toward huge boxy houses with what one person called “in-your-face white paint.” Another woman said recent subdivisions “have only brought mansion people who are not hikers or horse people, and it’s changing the nature of the Santa Monica Mountains.”
“Well, I have a problem with people who have what they have, and don’t want anyone else to have the same thing,” countered Rick Hornwood of Westlake Village, who said he wants to be able to build what he said would be a very large house on his land.
County planners have scheduled a second hearing to listen to residents describe what they want to see in the LCP for Dec. 3, 9 a.m. at the Topanga Elementary School cafeteria, 141 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.