Last week’s Malibu Times had a cartoon showing the side of a mountain being hauled away with over 4,000 trucks. The unidentified location of this proposed project is Sweetwater Mesa in Serra Retreat. Edge, the U2 band member, purchased about 170 acres of county land which has access through Serra Retreat. He told me he was going to be my new neighbor. I expressed my support of having him build a home he really wanted to live in, unlike the previous owner who only wanted to speculate.
Edge owns six buildable parcels. His home will be on the parcel which borders the Malibu County line. The remaining five parcels are to the north and all have legal access to Sweetwater Mesa. Both Edge and his team expressed how concerned he was about the environment which made me believe he would be a welcome developer if the land was to be built on. Two years later, the facts have surfaced. A plan was submitted to the Coastal Commission for extending Sweetwater Mesa nearly a mile up the mountain so four spec houses can be built.
This grading plan showed 77,000 yards of grading with 4,500 truckloads of dirt to be taken out through Serra Retreat. These trucks, lined up bumper to bumper, would stretch 22 miles. A man-made slope where the road is the steepest will be about 220 feet high, the height of a 20-story building. This slope would have numerous concrete bench drains and down drains and would be visible from La Costa to Point Dume
Not one person has told me they were opposed to Edge building his home. I am not opposed to it. But not one person has NOT been opposed to his tearing up the side of a mountain to build spec mansions. This plan is not walking the walk of an environmentalist.
Jim Smith