This is a response to the article: “Group Seeks State Coastal Act Enforcement Action,” which appeared in the Malibu Surfside News Dec. 22. This article describes a lawsuit by CLEAN against my family’s business on Cross Creek Road. I am responding without having the opportunity of reading the lawsuit since CLEAN has apparently given a copy of the suit to the Surfside News, while we have not yet received a copy. The veracity of CLEAN’s allegations compel a prompt reply.
The modus operandi of CLEAN, and its managing director, Marcia Hanscom, is to review current and former Coastal Commission staff reports for any mention of alleged coastal violations, and then proceed to demand compliance, attorney’s fees, relinquishment of private property and an undetermined amount of cash to settle their claim. CLEAN is basing their claim against us on an unsupported sentence in a five-year old coastal staff report. There is no evidence to support the allegation that use of the property causes pollution of Malibu Creek/Lagoon. The idea of us polluting the lagoon is preposterous. My family transferred most of the lagoon to the state, as well as all the State Park-owned land in the vicinity.
CLEAN confuses the operation of a commercial storage yard with coastal violations. For more than 40 years our business has provided a base location for some of the Malibu community’s electricians, plumbers, landscapers, masonry suppliers, road and utility contractors as well as storage of commercial and personal property. Our Cross Creek yard has existed since the 1940s. Commercial and storage uses precede the California Coastal Act. CLEAN incorrectly charges that such uses are unpermitted development.
It is the hope of CLEAN, with their aggressive tactics and threats of huge damage awards, to convince property owners to settle by turning over part or all of their real property to the state. As the Surfside’s article notes, CLEAN claims past success at taking private property. My family and I are descendants of those that fought the Southern Pacific Railroad, the state highway and the DWP nuclear power plant efforts in Malibu. We don’t “take kindly” to those that try to take our land. We will oppose CLEAN’s efforts to take our property, too.
Grant Adamson