Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to Ann Soble, publisher of the Surfside News, and was also sent to the Times as a ‘Letter to the Editor.’
In your editorial of last week, you refer to “distortions” and “misinformation” regarding Coastal’s ESHA proscriptions, I would like to correct you-using my under-construction home as an example.
Contrary to what you and Mr. Don Henley call “lies,” I was extorted by the commission to add seven permanent deed restrictions to my property in order to get a Coastal permit to build. Where is this environmentally sensitive house? How did it fall under the Coastal Act? Located in a neighborhood on Calpine Drive in Malibu Park, its sin was being one of 40 visible from the Zuma Canyon parking lot! Do you think the ESHA law will not also be liberally and punitively applied? My anger with Coastal is their tyranny, not their eco-intentions. The following are not “lies.”
Unlike my neighbors, I am forbidden rose bushes, limited to lawn size and denied most other desirable landscape; and I must pay to be inspected by the plant police every five years to prove continued compliance to my original landscape design-no garden improvement allowed. My house color must be “earth toned” and I was ordered to build two Honda-sized water filter systems to purify the drain-off from my 1.25-acre lot. If I ever desire to add any structure to my home (shed, chicken coop, playhouse) I must again apply to Coastal. I won’t bore you with the rest of the ridiculous restrictions but I add they are in perpetuity. Incidentally, my home is environmentally correct, low profile and we asked for no variance from City or Fire. But Coastal was just so egregious and intrusive I became part of the rag-tag army to listen to Mr. I-have-to-go-first-because-I-have-a-lunch-date Henley tell us what has happened to my dream home are imaginary figments of fear tactics. You are welcome to visit my unfinished home and inspect my deed restrictions.
Candy Sindell