Coastal Commission plan for Malibu coast ignores city’s draft.
Ken Gale/Special to The Malibu Times
The State Coastal Commission draft of a local coastal plan (LCP) for Malibu released last Friday aroused anger and indignation among city councilmembers Monday night. But most hadn’t had a chance to absorb the thick document over the weekend, so the council took no action.
“From what I’ve read, it’s pretty draconian,” Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said. “It looks like you’d have to have a permit just to have a birthday party for your child on the beach.”
“What this draft LCP does is restore Los Angeles County’s plan for our city, which Malibu citizens rejected,” said Councilmember Tom Hasse. “It’s why we became a city, so we could control our own destiny.
That [LCP] means turning Malibu into Coney Island West, with hotels on every corner,” he added.
Hasse pointed his finger directly at Peter Douglas, executive director of the Coastal Commission. “Peter Douglas has always had an ideological ax to grind against Malibu,” he said, and he called on Malibu voters not to vote for any candidate running for governor or the state Legislature who does not condemn the Coastal Commission LCP.
An LCP basically spells out how local communities along the California coastline will use beaches and adjacent lands. State laws mandate certain regulations designed to maintain natural coastal beauty, while at the same time guaranteeing such things as public beach access to beaches and visitor services, such as lodging, restaurants and public facilities. The Coastal Commission is one of the enforcers of those regulations.
Malibu had submitted its own draft version of an LCP last year that would have severely restricted commercial development in favor of open space and limited visitor amenities. The Coastal Commission rejected that plan and was then mandated by state law to write its own plan for Malibu.
The city then drew up another draft that it submitted to the Coastal Commission last month. City Hall sources say there has been no communication from the commission since then, despite earlier assurances from officials there that they would consult with Malibu planners in the process of drafting their LCP.
Here are some of the items in the Coastal LCP that councilmembers objected to, based on their preliminary readings:
- The 24-acre Crummer property on Malibu Bluffs would be rezoned from “rural residential” to “visitor-serving commercial,” which would allow a hotel or motel to be built there.
“Which means effectively ending the chance for an agreement to relocate the ballfields from Bluffs Park,” Barovsky said.
- Civic Center property would be rezoned. According to Hasse, “They have taken the Chili Cook-Off site, which we have zoned general commercial, and changed it to commercial visitor serving, meaning instead of small business and office buildings, we will have hotels and restaurants there.”
- According to Barovsky, the Coastal LCP would open up residential streets Cliffside and Birdview Drives in Point Dume to public parking.
- It also requires public access to beaches every 1,000 feet.
The Malibu Township Council (MTC), a longtime land preservationist organization, came under fire from councilmembers for its lawsuit against the city enjoining it from pursuing its own LCP. Councilmember Ken Kearsley noted that a letter from MTC to the city last May stated clearly that the “Coastal Commission, not the city” should write the Malibu LCP.
“They got what they asked for,” Kearsley said.
“Congratulations, MTC, you won,” said Barovsky. “Now you should explain to the people why you wanted the Coastal Commission to write our own LCP.”
Hasse called on the MTC to “stop these ridiculous law suits, unless they really want this for the city, which I don’t believe they do.”
Mayor Joan House noted there will be many hearings on the LCP coming up over the next two months and said, “It’s going to be a very heavy load.”
The council postponed some of the other weighty items on the agenda Monday night. These included several proposals from the Planning Department to change the city’s slope/density ordinances, making them more flexible for property owners. Slope/density is a formula for determining the allowable size of a building on a given lot, according to the steepness of a slope on the property. Changes proposed by the Planning Department would ease many of the current restrictions. Action on most of these proposed changes was postponed until the Oct. 22 council meeting because the Planning Commission had not been given them in time for discussion by this week’s council meeting.
Also postponed was discussion on a proposed Waste Water Management Plan drawn up by the city building department. Overall, this plan seeks to upgrade wastewater treatment and runoff facilities as now defined in the city’s 1995 general plan. It looks at newer technologies to replace current methods and to be used in new construction developments. It also would establish a wastewater inspection program for current and replacement systems. Because Building and Safety official Vic Peterson was out sick with the flu Monday, discussion was postponed until Oct. 8.