A commissioner refuses to vote in support of a resolution approving 16 nights of lights at Malibu High School because she says it would give too much power to the Coastal Commission on the regulation of night lighting at the school.
By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times
What was supposed to be a mere formality to officially send the Malibu High School sports field lighting issue to the City Council turned into an argument among planning commissioners at their meeting last week. At one point, the Planning Commission was unable to get a majority decision on the item, threatening to delay the time-sensitive process.
At a hearing last month, the Planning Commission voted 3-1 to recommend the City Council approve 16 nights of temporary field lights at Malibu High. The commission last Tuesday received a formal resolution from city staff regarding that decision, and was asked to approve it so the City Council could take up the matter on March 22. But Commissioner Regan Schaar, who was attending her final meeting, and Commission Chair Ed Gillespie initially rejected the resolution, putting the commission at a 2-2 deadlock (Commissioner Jeff Jennings did not vote because he lives close to the high school).
The main concern of Schaar, who said she favors no limits on lighting, was that the resolution put the 16-night maximum in an amendment to the Local Coastal Program, or LCP, a document on which the California Coastal Commission has a final say. This means if the city wanted to increase the number of nights in the future, it would have to go through the Coastal Commission. She said the number of nights should only appear in the municipal code, which the city could modify on its own. Schaar said the LCP amendment should only specify that lights would be allowed at Malibu High, with no mention of a maximum number of nights.
“We’re giving up our control as a city to the Coastal Commission,” said Schaar, who later added, “I’ve never heard of something so ridiculous that the Coastal Commission is controlling the lights at our school.”
Commission Vice Chair John Mazza and Commissioner Joan House said the Coastal Commission would never approve an LCP amendment without a specification on the maximum number of nights. And 16 nights was an amount most likely to get the state panel’s approval.
“Sixteen days is better than nothing,” said House, who added that the city could modify that amount in the future when “some coastal commissioners die off.”
Although Schaar refused to alter her opposition, Gillespie was persuaded to change his vote once he received a guarantee that the staff report for the City Council meeting would include Schaar’s viewpoints. Gillespie’s initial opposition to the resolution came despite having been part of the majority vote last month. He said he was inspired after volunteering at the Malibu Presbyterian Church’s Father-Daughter Valentine’s Dance that the city needed to do all it could to be “kid friendly.”
Gillespie’s eventual support for the resolution made it so there were three votes to move it on to the City Council. Had the commission been unable to break the deadlock, it would have meant either another full Planning Commission hearing would need to be scheduled or the commission would have to wait two weeks for a new resolution from city staff stating the commissioners did not agree on the issues. Either option would have meant a delay in the process. Night light advocates, which includes several City Council members, want the issue expedited so an LCP amendment could be in front of the Coastal Commission by May, giving enough time for there to be a chance to have night lights for football games this fall.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District last year asked the Coastal Commission for a permit to allow 16 nights of temporary lights at Malibu High. The commission rejected the request because the LCP does not allow for lights, and a permit approved in 2000 by the Coastal Commission for athletic facilities at the high school specifies that lights be banned. The proposed LCP amendment would make them legal.
The school district had gone straight to the Coastal Commission with its request last year without going through the city. Commissioner House noted this during last week’s meeting, and said the situation might have reached a different conclusion had the district gone through the city first.
Malibu High had been illegally lighting its athletic field for night football games for many years. There were a few complaints from neighbors about this, but nobody put up much of a fight. This changed when the district announced its intention for more than 200 nights of lighting per year, something district officials have officially withdrawn from their official stance, although some district officials said the SMMUSD could advocate for this later. The district was forced to seek a permit for the lights, and the Coastal Commission rejection meant an end to lights for now.