Thank you, Chris Jones, for correcting my arithmetic in your letter last week. Pepperdine’s 4.5 million cubic yard gouge for their upper campus does in fact calculate, not to 2 feet as I had written, but to a depth of more than 55 feet of dirt over the entire 50.4-acre development if the dirt were to be spread out in that fashion.
Chris also questioned the accuracy of the 4.5 million cubic yard figure. My source was the minutes of the Coastal Commission meeting of October 12, 1999, held in Oceanside, which reads in part:
“15. Local Coastal Program
a. Pepperdine LRDP Amendment No. 1-99. Public hearing and action on proposed amendment to certified Pepperdine University Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) to make seven revisions to approved 50.4-acre Upper Campus: increase grading to create roads and pads and to stabilize landslides from 3 million to 4.5 million cu.yds. in same area.” (“Approved.”)
Incidentally, the submittal by Coastal staff recommended to the political board that the amendment be disapproved, but the board approved it anyway. (Chris, any computer-literate person can get these minutes at the Coastal Commission’s Web site. If you need some help, call me.)
The point of my letter was not to criticize Pepperdine but to express my astonishment that the commission would approve this huge and ecologically disruptive development in the middle of an undeveloped area. To say the least, it is inconsistent (bizarre, mind-boggling, arrogant?) that for City of Malibu purposes they are claiming that contiguous land is ESHA and therefore subject to Draconian restrictions even by homeowners and businesses who already are using the land.
I guess the 55-foot depth helps to emphasize my point, doesn’t it?
Don Maclay