Environmentally sensitive habitat designations would hamper many recreational and development rights.
By Jeff Bertolucci/Special to The Malibu Times
Denouncing the California Coastal Commission as a “powerful and arrogant organization,” Malibu-area real estate, farming and equestrian interests took a militant tone at a public hearing on Saturday, vowing to fight the California Coastal Commission’s proposed Land Use Plan (LUP) for Malibu.
With some 150 in attendance at the hearing at Calamigos Ranch on Mulholland Highway, business leaders announced plans to form two groups to fight the controversial LUP, which, if passed, would dramatically curtail residential and recreational activities in Malibu, according to its critics.
The state-mandated LUP draft designates close to 70 percent of Malibu as Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas (ESHA). Property owners within an ESHA will face greater land-use restrictions, making it difficult and expensive to remodel or expand their homes, or have equestrian facilities, critics say. The existing Malibu LUP, in place since 1986, has fewer ESHAs and less stringent land-use regulations.
“Without a shadow of a doubt the California Coastal Commission intends to change all the local programs up and down the state to reflect these policies,” said Don Schmitz, president of the land use consultant firm Schmitz and Associates. “There is absolutely nothing that is not an environmentally sensitive habitat area defined by the Coastal Commission.”
Schmitz said that, by way of the regulations imposed, new coastal permits would be required, forcing home owners to “pay $50,000 to $60,000 to get started,” incurring charges such as hiring an economist and biologist, as well as title research and application fees.
Lower Property Values
Realtors at Saturday’s meeting complained of the draft’s plan to limit development by landowners of 40 acres or less to 10,000 square feet, or 25 percent of their property, whichever is less. New homes, guest homes, remodel jobs, swimming pools and corrals will be subject to this restriction.
“The Land Use Plan will make the sale of your home more difficult,” said Eric Randall, president of the Los Angeles Board of Real Estate.
“The property values in Malibu will be impacted because this plan significantly reduces the usable part of your property,” said Kathryn Yarnell, president of the Malibu Association of Realtors. “How are you going to sell what you can’t use?”
ESHA-area home sellers will face a baffling array of disclosure issues that could reduce the value of their homes.
“You’ll have to tell prospective buyers, ‘I’ve got this guest house but it might have to go, and I’ve got this swimming pool, but I might have to fill it in,’ ” Yarnell warned.
The LUP would apply only to the City of Malibu, but foes fear its policies will be extended throughout the Santa Monica Mountains.
“Malibu is just the first step,” said Randall, who announced that his organization had already made a “significant monetary contribution” to the effort to fight the proposed LUP.
The construction industry fears the LUP as well.
“The cost of construction in Malibu will increase dramatically because the plan places a ban on earthwork during the rainy season, from November to March,” said Clayton Miller, executive manager of the Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality.
“Although we typically experience only 7 to 14 days of rain in Southern California each season, the ban lasts for five months,” Miller complained.
Two-Front Fight
Leaders at the meeting announced the creation of two groups to fight the Malibu plan. The first is the Recreation and Land Use Preservation Foundation, which will finance environmental reports to challenge the Coastal Commission’s biological studies that are the basis for the LUP.
The second group, the Land Use Preservation Defense Fund, is a political advocacy group that will spearhead legal action to fight the Coastal Commission’s plan, according to Stanley Lamport, attorney for Cox, Castle & Nicholson and the moderator of Saturday’s public hearing.
“We plan to put on a full-court press on this issue, and we don’t plan to go away,” Lamport told the audience.
No More Horses?
Equestrian enthusiasts fear the Coastal Commission, if successful in Malibu, will implement a Byzantine labyrinth of rules and regulations designed to eliminate horses from the Santa Monica Mountains.
The LUP draft, for instance, requires horse stables to be placed near the home within a fuel modification buffer. “But Health Department regulations say horse facilities must be at least 50 feet from the residence,” said Ruth Gerson, president of the Recreation and Equestrian Coalition. “You do the math-no horse facilities.”
“What shocks me about this plan is how it targets grazing animals, which are a great way to protect you from fire,” said Brian Boudreau, president of the Santa Monica Mountains Inholders Association and the owner of a “large farm” at the intersection of Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road.
“The California Coastal Commission has gone regulation crazy and now threatens my lifestyle more than developers threaten me,” added Don Wallace, a member of Equestrian Trails, Inc.
Issue attracts politicians
Local politics and the California gubernatorial race also entered the fray Saturday.
Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Jennings, along with other city councilmembers, attended the meeting and did not agree with the onstage rhetoric.
“I don’t take quite as dark a view of the political scene as some of these people,” Jennings said. “We’re always listening to suggestions, so make yourselves known to us.”
Representatives from the Bill Simon for Governor Campaign were also in attendance, and didn’t quell the chance to garner support.
Claiming they were quite “puzzled by what we hear” regarding the Local Coastal Plan, Dr. Phil Kurtner, a surgeon who is the Los Angeles chairperson for the Republican candidate’s campaign, said it “will not surprise you to know that Bill Simon strongly believes in local control and personal property rights.”
Kurtner, who commented he hadn’t seen so many cowboy hats since his days in Texas, said, although he doesn’t make any promises, “[Simon] is very sympathetic and understands the issue. He’ll do everything he can to learn as much as he can about it.”
The Malibu LUP must be adopted by the Coastal Commission by Sept. 15. The commission will hold a public hearing in early July.
Writer Kevin M. Culwell contributed to this story.