City sees progress at Coastal Commission as Irish “WWOOFERS” take aim at pesticides.
By Cristina Forde/Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu City Council voted 4-1 Monday to deny an application for a variance that would enable the owner to access his undeveloped mountain property through more than a quarter mile of Malibu city territory starting at the end of the private Sweetwater Mesa Road. Councilmember Joan House dissented.
In other business, the council agreed to pay $20,000 to settle the Levenson Malibu Road damage suit, heard public anger regarding the 28-car garage project in Point Dume and listened to two Irish women, who call themselves WWOOFERs (Willing Worker on Organic Farm), plead the case of a local farmer who is fighting to avoid neighbors’ pesticides. The council also questioned speakers about a county-mandated septic facility at Trancas, approved the preliminary Trails Master Plan Map 5-0, reported “movement” at the recent Coastal Commission meeting and approved a city Clean Water Team program, complete with a dolphin logo.
‘Most difficult decision’
“This is as difficult a decision as I’ve faced in the eight years I’ve been on the council,” Mayor Jeff Jennings said of the Sweetwater Mesa matter. “The consequences of being wrong on this are horrendous. But that hasn’t changed my vote. I am going to support the resolution [to deny the application].”
The major concern is what owner Brian Sweeney intends to do with the property. No building applications have been submitted to the county.
Sweeney has requested a variance to build a 20-foot-wide, 1,660-foot-long private access road that would connect the end of Sweetwater Mesa Road to five parcels of undeveloped mountain property above Sweetwater Mesa. The property is within L.A. County boundaries. Critics object to the amount of grading the road would require, environmental impact and that the road would go through private property.
House worried the situation would steamroll out of control like a project at Trancas that was exacerbated by the city’s stance.
“I hate it when the city loses control. This is going to court. Everyone knows that,” she said.
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, saying she was concerned about the issues rather than “who owns what upstream,” said, “I’m inclined to support the motion and let the court battle begin.”
Holding up the private road as “the only way to access this property,” Sweeney representative Don Schmitz said two proposed alternative roads that could connect the property to Piuma Road would go through pristine wilderness, would be two to three times longer and would require two to three times the grading.
Garage anger unabated
Malibu resident Sam Hall Kaplan, speaking during public comment, blasted members of the City Council for failing to prevent the construction of a 28-car garage on Grasswood Ave. in Point Dume.
Councilmember Barovsky said the garage slipped through the Interim Zoning Ordinance and “We are trying to undo it-we can’t do it overnight.”
Pesticides pose problem
Alan Cunningham of Vital Zuma Farm at PCH and Heathercliff appealed for the second time for action to prevent his “agribusiness” neighbor from spreading chemical pesticides onto his organic farm.
“I’m calling for a new agricultural awareness in Malibu,” he said, “to protect people from chemicals.”
Catherine McAuliffe of Dublin, calling herself a WWOOFER, said she was “horrified that a farm adjacent was spraying chemicals.”
Call for EIR on sewage tank
“We’ve got a disaster pending,” said Trancas resident Hans Laetz, asking that the city attorney send a letter to the county Public Works Department requesting an Environmental Impact Report before the construction of a new sewage tank at Trancas in two weeks. The county has ordered the water board to begin construction.
Malibu ‘optimistic but reserved’ on Coastal
Lloyd Ahern warned “there’s going to be a lot of sleight of hand at the last minute,” before the California Coastal Commission presents its final version of Malibu’s Local Coastal Plan Sept. 15, but the City Council detected some hopeful signs at the meeting week at Huntington Beach last week.
The commission, reported House, was receptive on many issues.
“They didn’t just nod their heads. There was movement made,” she said. “It was a marked change from what we experienced a year ago.”
Mayor Pro Tem Ken Kearsley said, “I want to be optimistic about the process, but I am reserved about what they’re trying to do.”