The Recreation and Land Use Preservation Foundation (RecLUPF) was created to advance the public interest in the responsible use of public and private land, and to provide assistance to individuals who are subjected to unreasonable and unwarranted governmental land regulations. Members of the foundation represent a broad cross-section of interests in California, including re-presentatives from agriculture, real estate, recreation, equestrian, beach, neighborhood and parkland visitor-serving businesses and organizations.
We are alarmed and shocked at what the California Coastal Commission has proposed for the City of Malibu in their Land Use Plan!
It is unprecedented for the California Legislature to allow a State agency to adopt local land use regulations over the objections of locally elected officials. The proposed measures are prime examples of insensitive, costly, arbitrary and discriminatory land use regulation. They clearly show why such authority should never have been granted to agency bureaucrats who bear no accountability or responsibility for their actions. The Coastal Commission and their staff have drafted a land use plan that tramples on the rights of every homeowner in the City of Malibu.
They have proposed the following ridiculous measures: ban garbage disposals; prohibit dogs, cats and birds; ban horses and all farm animals; repaint every building in earthtones; remove all non-native landscaping (lawns and eucalyptus trees); disallow all agriculture (vineyards and orchards) regardless of zoning; limit public access to open spaces in the Santa Monica Mountains; remove the only beachfront rental housing in the city and replace with mansions; stop all construction earthwork during a five-month “rainy” season (Nov. – March); confine all homes and accessory structures to a footprint about tennis court size
This LUP will make virtually every home in Malibu “non-conforming” and require extraordinary disclosures when selling, if a buyer could even be found. Furthermore, thousands of dollars and months (maybe years) of aggravation and remodeling would be needed to acquire the necessary permits and to renovate the home to conformance with the LUP.
Governor Davis, California should be embarrassed by the arrogance and insensitivity demonstrated by your Coastal Commission and their staff in the development of this plan. They have ignored the local plan submitted by Malibu’s City Council, and they have dismissed virtually every suggestion made by the citizens of Malibu. As a public servant who spent many years working in government, you must certainly appreciate the importance of local land use decisions and their impact on the character of a community.
We believe the California Coastal Commission has overstepped the bounds of reason with the proposed Malibu Land Use Plan, and we are concerned that it sets a terrible precedent for the state of California.
We would like to request the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our concerns in the hope that you can convey to your appointees on the Coastal Commission the need for common sense and a reasonable balance in the adoption of a plan for the City of Malibu.
Ray Slayton, executive director RecLUP Foundation
Kathryn Yarnell,
president Malibu
Association of Realtors
Brian Boudreau, president
Santa Monica Mountains Inholders Association
Bill Waggoner
Operating Engineers
Local 12
Malcolm Bennettt,
past president
Southwest AOR
Ruth L. Gerson,
president Recreation
and Equestrian Coalition
Kathleen Burr-Ballesteros, executive manager
Los Angeles County
Farm Bureau
Delores Golden,
president-elect
Southwest Los Angeles Association of Realtors
Michael Lewis
Construction Industry Co. on Water Quality
Paull McGee, president
Southwest AOR