City Council arms for battle at coastal hearing, draws closer to definition of a

By Cristina Forde · Wed Jul 10 2002

Malibu basement

Ocean paddlers appeal for home in beach-less beach city

By Cristina Forde/Special to The Malibu Times

It's high noon for control of Malibu as councilmembers and staff make a go-for-broke presentation regarding the California Coastal Commission draft Land Use Plan (LUP) at its July 10 and 11 meeting in Huntington Beach.

Malibu will tell the commission how to fix problems with the LUP. The commission will tell Malibu how to deal with it.

"It's going to be a very interesting day," said Malibu City Councilmember Joan House at the City Council meeting Monday. "All the lines will be drawn.

"We'll see what has to be done between July 15 and Sept. 15 [deadline]. We won't be dealing in the dark."

Councilmember Ken Kearsley quipped, "I look forward to it like a root canal."

In other business, councilmembers engaged in a lively, sometimes philosophical discussion of the definition of basements in their ongoing effort to bring the building code and evolving design concepts into alignment.

In public comment, Cameron Losey and Jeannie Yamamoto appealed for a new beach home for their nonprofit outrigger canoe program that now operates out of Paradise Cove. They will use their 43-foot, six-person fiberglass outrigger to teach "Outrigger Adventures" through the City of Malibu Department of Parks and Recreation beginning July 15. The City of Malibu owns no beaches.

Councilmembers said they would look into working with the state, which owns several prominent beaches.

Tsilah Burman, executive director of Rally to Save Ahmanson Ranch, gave the council an update on the movement to stop the Ahmanson development.

Malibu asking for seven changes

With all five City Council members present and City Manager Katie Lichtig leading the staff troops at this week's Coastal Commission show down, Malibu will ask that body to significantly alter the draft LUP regarding "seven primary issues that encompass many policies."

"Their land use maps do not reflect the city," Lichtig said at the City Council meeting. "The habitat areas use vague criteria."

Specifically, Malibu will tell the Coastal Commission:

• The commission's land use maps should reflect the zoning designated in the city's General Plan. Since January, many parcels have been changed to conform to the city's designation and 150 parcels still do not conform. Coastal Commission maps lag behind the city's updates.

• The draft LUP's designation of environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHAs) are not supported by up-to-date field analysis and are based on the application of vague criteria. "The city is fully committed to this process [protection of ESHA and other sensitive resources]," Lichtig wrote in an overview letter to the commission. But until reports developed by the Department of Fish and Game as requested by Sen. Sheila Kuehl and Assemblymember Fran Pavley are ready, Lichtig said, the 1986 Certified Los Angeles County ESHA maps should be used.

• Policies specifically related to Bluffs Park should be deleted from the Land Use Plan.

• The commission's policies regarding restrictive development standards are "onerous and complicated to interpret." These standards, as detailed in draft LUP chapter six, would apply to any new development visible from scenic roads, trails, parklands, beaches and state waters. Of most concern, Lichtig wrote, "is the policy that limits impacted area from development if it is visible from a scenic road to 10,000 square feet or 25 percent of the lot size, whichever is less. It appears that if the new development is visible from several miles up the coast but not visible from the scenic road that fronts the parcel these limitations apply. This seems overreaching."

• The LUP's requirements for a temporary use permit (TUP) are "problematic," requiring someone "to know prior to their event that they will have a negative impact on public access, recreation and coastal resources."

• The draft LUP's policies regarding agriculture and confined animals are so restrictive as to prohibit normal use of private rural property in Malibu.

• The Coastal Commission LUP is mute on the issue of retained jurisdiction. The City of Malibu wants the matter articulated in the LUP.

The issues relate directly to the Coastal Commission's revised Land Use Plan of July 1, 2002. This plan was written by the Coastal Commission under orders from the state Legislature after the state deemed Malibu's own plan unsuitable.

Basements bite-by-bite

Like a sheepdog nipping at the heels of his flock, Mayor Jeff Jennings moved the council toward guidelines regarding the construction of basements in Malibu.

"We need to relate those provisions to some governmental interest," he said. "And the premise has to be based on logic, not just people saying they don't like it."

He said, "It's not easy, because it has so many components-We'll take it bite-by-bite."

The council agreed that encouraging builders to go underground rather than make the above-ground structure larger is a legitimate goal.

Staff had asked for guidance on how much daylight should be permitted, how much basement can extend beyond the footprint of a house, how much square footage is allowable and how to calculate a basement.

The council separated the concepts of basement space and garage space and decided to write separate ordinances.

Architect Ed Niles said the historic definition of basements is a space that is not habitable by humans.

"I feel like we are trying to put a 10-pound hamburger in a 5-pound basement," said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who said that if a structure was supposed to be an underground garage, then Malibu needs an ordinance for garages.

"I know what habitable is," Barovsky said. "My grandmother did canning in the basement and my grandfather would not have put her in a place that was not habitable. I know what a basement is no matter what you people tell me, and it's not a garage."

"A garage has a way to get a car in and out," Jennings said.

Councilmembers tentatively agreed on three parameters: for a basement that daylights out, the daylight side must be hidden from the street; underground structures that extend beyond the foundation will not count against the allowable square footage if they stay within the impermeable surface and excavation restrictions; and in order not to count in the total development footage, basements must adhere to specific restrictions (height of dirt all around, etc.).

And …

Councilmember Kearsley offered an apology for referring to the Valley in surfer slang at the last City Council meeting. He said CNN, Reuters and the Los Angeles Times' Steve Harvey jumped on the statement and that he would wear sackcloth the next time he goes to the Valley. When he "goes with his wife to her favorite shrine, Costco, I'll offer a mea culpa on my knees," he said, and "I will no longer use the number after '7.' "

Kearsley said the two soldiers from Malibu's adopted 101st Airborne Company, who were flown out with their wives for July 4, "charmed their way into our hearts. They went back with great reluctance to Ft. Campbell."