News Analysis

By The Malibu Times · Thu Sep 26 2002

Malibu struggles with 800 lb. LCP gorilla

By Arnold G. York/Publisher

As was evident from council and staff comments at Monday night's council meeting, the city has begun to deal with the enormous task of grappling with the recently passed Malibu Local Coastal Program. The program, which was passed by the California Coastal Commission on Sept. 13, and delivered in its final form to the city only last week, is currently undergoing minute scrutiny to determine just what it is that was finally passed, what it means and how the plan can be implemented.

At the same time, several groups of Malibu citizens, including Dr. Jeff Harris, long a coastal activist, and Anne Hoffman, who is the executive director of the Recreation and Land Use Preservation Foundation, indicated in public comments at the council meeting they were far from willing to accept the new plan as law. They are in the process of putting together a repeal referendum and to gather the necessary signatures, estimated to be 10 percent of the electoral vote from the last election, which would number about 900. The referendum would be put before voters most likely in December.

But even the question of who gets to vote on the referendum is far from clear. Mayor Jeff Jennings, an attorney who has been leading the city fight for a reasonable Malibu Local Coastal Program (LCP), said there is a legal question as to which voters get to accept or reject the LCP. The question is whether only the citizens of Malibu get to vote because the plan is only for Malibu, or whether it is all the voters of the state of California because it's a state agency action that's being challenged. Ultimately, it probably will result in a lawsuit first, said Jennings.

There were also complaints from several council members and speakers about the way the Coastal Commission hearing was conducted. Several charged that Sara Wan, the Coastal Commission chair, was routinely seen shuffling speakers' slips at the hearing, putting all the pro-city speakers, which made up the majority of the 178 speakers, at the end of the agenda.

As former Planning Commissioner Ted Vaill described it, "It didn't feel like a democracy."

As an interim matter, city staff indicated they were doing the following:

• Awaiting receipt of approximately 70 to 75 previous applications to the Coastal Commission, which were not deemed complete before the LCP was passed, and, therefore, are now going to the city for processing. It is estimated they would take six weeks to get to the city.

• City planning staff is holding morning and evening meetings, everyday, trying to review all potential problems, and will be issuing new forms and frequently asked questions (FAQs) with answers to be posted for the public.

• Mayor Jennings suggested a workshop for the public, which is now in the works.

• The council indicated an intention to go back to the Coastal Commission for amendments to the LCP, with portions that appeared inconsistent with state law, and other portions that had not been included because time ran out.

• Despite continuing to negotiate with the Coastal Commission, several councilmembers were clear they were not ruling out taking the matter to court.

• City staff is conducting a study to help establish what amount of time will be involved in enforcing the LCP, so they can recommend a fee structure to the council.

• Staff will review some last minute amendments to the LCP introduced by alternate coastal commissioner Edward Albert relating to archeology, which some city officials said blindsided them and have created much uncertainty.

In other action the council:

• Voted 5-0 to permit staff requests to allow city workers to work nine, eight-hour days over a two-week period. About half the city workers made the request, and council said an additional benefit is it would allow for longer hours at City Hall counters.

• Voted 5-0 to change city staff health plans to a somewhat cheaper option to offset a 25 percent increase this year, and an anticipated 20 to 25 percent increase at the beginning of next year.

• Decided to put both of the city's LCP political consultants, Susan McCabe and Joe Roos, on hiatus.

• Heard that Ed Lipnick, longtime member of the Planning Commission, was resigning from the commission.

• Voted 5-0 to endorse Measure EE (the educational parcel tax), coming up on the November ballot.

• Heard Mark Olson, regional manager for Southern California Edison, say he anticipates that electricity prices would drop within the next year, or year and a half, by 20 to 30 percent.