Coastal Commission staff is no longer recommending the regional parks classification be added to the document.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
The California Coastal Commission will vote at a meeting next Wednesday in Long Beach on whether to approve the city’s proposed amendment to the Malibu Local Coastal Program.
The Coastal Commission staff in its report recommended that the voting body not approve the amendment unless it supports some adjustments to it. But the staff is no longer recommending that a regional park classification be added to the LCP, after the city requested last month that no park classifications be included at all.
Late last year, the Malibu Planning Commission recommended language be included in the LCP amendment proposal that defined a regional park as a place where special, prearranged events could take place, as recommended by the SMMC. This angered Ramirez Canyon property owners because they believed it was an attempt by the SMMC to get around the property owners’ legal battle with the conservancy about holding events at the SMMC-owned Ramirez Canyon Park. In response, the City Council did not include the definition for a regional park in the LCP amendment proposal it submitted to the Coastal Commission. But when the LCP amendment proposal was supposed to go before the Coastal Commission in August, a commission staff report recommended the classification of a regional park should be added to the document. In response, the city requested that the vote on the amendment proposal be delayed. The city, which had included nonregional park classifications in its amendment proposal, later requested that no park classifications be included in the amendment (that does not mean they could not be included in future amendments). That request has been accepted.
City planning officials have met with the Coastal Commission staff since the issuance of the August recommendation. Planning officials could not be reached this week to discuss if this month’s Coastal Commission recommendation is satisfactory. Mayor Ken Kearsley said on Tuesday that he had been out of town for several days, and had not yet read the staff report for this month’s meeting.
This LCP amendment is the first in what is expected to be a series of amendments the city will be requesting the Coastal Commission approve for the document that sets the rules for development in Malibu. After several years of unsuccessfully trying to get the LCP invalidated through the court system, the city last year reached an agreement with the Coastal Commission staff for the amendment process. This first amendment, minus the parks controversy, mostly dealt with minor issues that were not expected to cause controversy.
The Coastal Commission meeting is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, located at 200 South Pine Ave. The Wednesday session begins at 9 a.m. To access the staff report for the proposed Malibu LCP amendment, go to www.coastal.ca.gov. Click “Public Meetings” on the upper left-hand corner. Then scroll down to “City of Malibu LCP Amendment MAJ 1-06,” and click on the link.
City Council to vote on new amendment proposal
At its meeting on Monday, the City Council will vote on an LCP amendment proposal that would allow for educational facilities to be built on the property next to City Hall that Santa Monica College is planning to purchase. The seven-acre, Yamaguchi Family Trust-owned property went into a 90-day escrow in August. A variety of environmental tests are being done on the property before the college decides whether it will complete the $8 million purchase. The SMC Board of Trustees will vote on whether to close escrow next month.
An LCP amendment is necessary because the current zoning of the property does not allow for educational facilities.
Also on Monday, the council will continue discussion and possibly vote on a proposed ordinance for hillside development. The City Council has been trying for several years to craft a hillside development ordinance, but various disagreements have prevented that from happening. Additionally, the council will vote on changing the name of De Butts Terrace to Paradise View Way. According to a city staff report, residents of the street had requested the name change due to “the derogatory nature of the De Butts Terrace name.” The council will also consider whether to instruct the Parks and Recreation Commission to discuss a possible name change for Bluffs Park. The City Council recently became the official owner of a 10-acre portion of the park.