As a psychiatrist, I am interested in improving communications and understanding. From what I have learned, the recent conduct of the California Coastal Commission and its staff towards the City of Malibu, its elected representatives, residents and visitors needs to be closely examined and improved.
The Commission has, through a series of deliberate actions, ignored the thousands of hours of local knowledge and environmental goals and concerns embodied in the city’s February 2000 draft Local Coastal Plan Land Use Plan (LUP). Coastal staff was quoted publicly stating “the draft as submitted was unacceptable. . . and indicated the draft would require significant enough changes that Coastal did not have the resources available to review it on a word by word basis.”
Next the Commission refused to review a more compact version, the July 2001 city LUP. They found the resources to dictate its September 2001 version LCP. This self-directed plan has many onerous and significant requirements that are very different from what the community feels is appropriate and reasonable to our city’s General Plan and the Coastal Act.
Malibu citizens and representatives must be heard and communicated with on an item by item basis to arrive at a truly local coastal plan. At the Oct. 30 community hearing the Coastal staff admitted that they had not planned to have the over two hours of public testimony transcribed for the Coastal commissioners before the upcoming November 15 meeting when the Coastal staff’s draft LUP will be considered.
The Commission must change its attitude toward Malibu residents and visitors and really work openly and honestly to arrive at reasonable measures that will preserve the really beautiful and accessible areas here.
Bruce Lockwood