U2 guitarist The Edge, as well as his family and friends, have lost their battle to build five large estates in the hills above Malibu.
The California Coastal Commission, in an 8-4 vote, rejected the controversial proposal to build five luxury homes on 156 acres on contiguous parcels overlooking Serra Canyon, as well as a 6,010 foot access road extending from Sweetwater Mesa Road.
Commission staff earlier this month recommended denial of coastal development permits for the development project by The Edge, whose real name is David Evans, and his family and friends in Malibu.
Staff had said the project would result in significant visual impacts and that it would significantly disrupt the local vegetative habitat. The Commission had also determined that Evans, and the other owners, who are each either friends or family, constituted a “unity of ownership,” and that they might seek to sell the houses for profit rather than live in them.
Fiona Hutton, whose public relations firm represents the applicants, had excoriated the staff’s findings in a press release.
“In a blatant attempt to arrange or change the facts to support their predetermined position, the Coastal Commission staff is setting a dangerous precedent by applying standards to these property owners the staff has never used before,” Hutton wrote.
Hutton denied the commission’s characterization of the project as a “unity of ownership.” She stated that the owners do not want to sell the houses but to live in them, and that they had satisfied all legal requirements: “The property owners have a clear legal right to develop their land and have cooperated and acted in good faith throughout the permitting process.”