Malibu resident vows to fight county’s grading and ridgeline ordinance

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L.A. County’s Planning Commission approves ordinance; will go before Board of Supervisors in August. Resident Anne Hoffman says ordinance will allow for inverse condemnation on lots in the Santa Monica Mountains.

By P.G. O’Malley/Special to The Malibu Times

Malibu resident Anne Hoffman vows to fight on despite the Los Angeles County Planning Commission’s approval, by a 4-1 vote, of the grading and ridgeline ordinance proposed by the county’s planning staff.

“We don’t have any intention of having the Board of Supervisors perform inverse condemnation on lots in the Santa Monica Mountains,” said Hoffman, who is president of Malibu-based Land Use Preservation Defense Fund.

But Laura Shell, land use deputy for County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, said the ordinance is not about prohibiting development. “The intent of the ordinance is to provide oversight for projects that have the potential to harm the Santa Monica Mountains,” Shell said.

The Planning Commission’s action comes after it extended its initial hearing twice to accommodate public testimony on the ordinance, which will implement policies of the North Area plan in areas of the mountains that fall under the county’s jurisdiction. Hoffman and other critics argue that the grading restrictions imposed by the ordinance will keep too many property owners from developing.

Shell said what the ordinance does is require that property owners who want to exceed the grading threshold must apply for a conditional use permit. When told that Hoffman said a CUP is too much of an additional financial burden, Shell responded, “It costs money to build a house from scratch. This is part of the cost of development.”

Aside from putting a cap on the amount of grading that can be done at 5,000 cubic yards, the ordinance also protects mountain viewsheds by prohibiting structures from being sited on top of ridgelines. Hoffman argued that the restrictions would cause more environmental damage than if property owners were allowed to build close to the top.

However, Shell said the ordinance had the support of local homeowners associations from Topanga to Agoura, as well as environmental organizations such as Heal the Bay. “Most of the leadership in the area is supportive,” said Shell, who also reports that the cities of Agoura Hills and Calabasas lobbied for even tighter restrictions.

But Hoffman is unconvinced. Citing “the hundreds of people” who testified at the Planning Commission hearings and 300 letters sent in opposition to the proposed regulations, Hoffman said, “We’re going to make sure that people know that Zev is doing something that is very, very much against his constituents and that he’s done a backdoor deal with the other supervisors. Zev Yaroslavsky’s intent is something else besides protecting the environment.”

In addition to Hoffman’s group, the Santa Monica Mountains-based Recreation and Equestrian Coalition also opposes the ordinance on the basis that it will limit the amount of horse facilities that can be built in the mountains. At an April workshop, coalition president Ruth Gerson said the new ordinance didn’t allow enough grading to accommodate a house, fire department turnaround and wastewater system, “not to mention corrals, barns and arenas.”

Asked what she thought was behind Yaroslavsky’s support of the ordinance, Hoffman said, “We believe it’s inverse condemnation for land acquisition for the public agencies.”

In response, Shell pointed out the ordinance is in keeping with regulations imposed by other jurisdictions around the mountains and other hillside areas in the state.

County Senior Regional Planning Assistant Gina Natoli said staff will make changes authorized by the commission when it approved the ordinance and the final version would likely go before the Board of Supervisors sometime in August.