State high court will not hear Trancas development suit

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A partner in the company that owns the Trancas property says city officials appear not to be interested in making a deal with his company.

By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor

The state Supreme Court issued a statement last week that it would not hear the lawsuit regarding the validity of a legal settlement between the city of Malibu and a local developer. The court’s decision brings an end to the latest chapter in a saga that goes back more than two decades.

The court’s decision was not unexpected, since the city had declined to pursue petitioning the Supreme Court for review following a state appellate court’s ruling that the agreement between developer Trancas PCH and the city to allow for the construction of 32 town homes on the Pacific Coast Highway property off Trancas Canyon Road violated state and local laws.

“When the city didn’t continue with its support, it certainly didn’t help,” Trancas PCH partner Dean Isaacson said.

The deal would have also included a donation of 26.5 acres (an offer amount Isaacson has since increased) of land to the city. Isaacson said the city’s lack of support showed local officials were not interested in receiving land that could be used for ball fields.

But City Attorney Christi Hogin said last month that she believed the city had exhausted its efforts to try and save the deal, and it was not in the city’s best interest to continue with the litigation against a local homeowners association that had sued over the agreement. She said Trancas PCH would be better off to submit a new proposal to build on the property and go through the ordinary planning process.

Councilmember Andy Stern said this week, “I have no regrets on the city’s decision. We welcome him [Isaacson] to submit a new plan to the city of Malibu. He hasn’t done it. I’ve suggested that he do it and I wish him luck in whatever he does.”

Isaacson said the city has not been helpful with his getting a project underway on the property. He said he had been in discussion with the California Coastal Commission staff recently about a new plan, but it was ruined when the city refused to send a letter to the Coastal Commission staff saying it would not oppose any deal between Trancas PCH and the commission. Isaacson declined to go into detail on his discussions with the Coastal Commission staff.

Hogin said this week that the proposed deal was for the Coastal Commission to have full control over what could be built on the property. “He was basically asking us [the city] to give up all land-use authority,” said Hogin, adding that that was not something the city would be interested in doing.

Isaacson said because of what appears to him to be the city’s lack of interest in making a deal with Trancas PCH, the company will probably be forced to renew its original lawsuit against the city, seeking the right to get to build 52 town homes and 15 houses on the 35-acre property.

The attempt to build on this Trancas site has been a 25-year saga of lawsuits and conflicts. The county approved tract maps for the previous owner in 1980 and 1985 allowing for the construction of 52 town homes and 15 houses. The company received coastal development permits for the project in 1981, 1989 and 1992. But an appellate court decision in 2001 sided with a local property owners association on nearby Broad Beach and invalidated the coastal permits. The city also fought with Trancas PCH for several years over the validity of the county-approved tract maps. This eventually lead to the settlement, which was crushed when the appellate court rejected it, citing environmental concerns and ruling the City Council violated a state open-meeting law when it approved the deal.