Slated to mainstream the planning process, the first of a kind hearing in Malibu meets opposition in decision.
By Jonathan Friedman/Special to the Malibu Times
In a move to streamline the planning process, the first Planning Manager’s public hearing took place last week to decide what should have been a quick and easy hearing.
However, it turned out to be much more than that.
Last Thursday, Malibu resident Robert Carmichael lashed out as interim Planning Manager Ed Knight approved Sprint PCS’s application for the installation of a wireless telecommunications facility on an existing utility pole near a home on Boniface Drive.
Carmichael, who lives near where the facility would be installed, said it would devalue his home and would risk his health. Two other residents who live near the proposed site sided with him. Knight said it was not a health risk, and even if it was, he was helpless to do anything about it. According to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a local government can regulate the placement of wireless telecommunications facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions if they meet FCC standards. Carmichael said he has evidence that that has been challenged, and said he would appeal the decision to the Planning Commission, which is where the item would have originally gone for a hearing.
Environmental and Community Development Director Vic Peterson said the new type of public hearing is designed to mainstream the planning process. Knight said items of lesser significance could go before him at these hearings. He admitted he was surprised by what occurred at the hearing.
“It is my decision what items should be placed on those agendas,” he said. “But I may be wrong” (on his decision making).
The previous sequence for planning decisions is that, first, an item goes before the Planning Commission. If it is appealed, the item then goes to the City Council. Then, as often is the case in Malibu, the item continues on to the court system. The new public hearings will place another level in the process, with appeals going to the Planning Commission. But Knight said few items would be on these agendas.
“I don’t think you’re going to be seeing any requests for variances being granted at these public hearings,” he said.
Peterson said the concept is another element of the city staff redesign structure. Following the resignation of Drew Purvis in March as the city’s sixth planning director, the City Council approved Lichtig’s idea of combining Planning and Building and Safety into one department, Environmental and Community Development. Peterson was put at the helm, and three divisions within the department were created in attempt to, in Lichtig’s words, “remove structural barriers” from the planning process.
Knight said the new hearings have nothing to do with the Planning Commission agenda being backed up due to the Malibu Bay Company Development Agreement. The commission has been focused on the agreement for several months, and many regular planning items have been put on hold because of it. The commission has not had a meeting that involved anything but the agreement since Mar. 17. Although items sometimes appear on the agenda, they are always continued.
The next Planning Manager public hearing is on May 15.