Pepperdine driver cited in crash with truck
One northbound lane of Pacific Coast Highway near John Tyler Drive next to Pepperdine University was closed for a period of time last week on Thursday afternoon following a collision between an 18-wheeler and a Mustang shortly before 12 p.m. Both northbound lanes were closed for approximately 20 minutes.
A Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station spokesperson said Kelsey Bryant, 18, was turning onto John Tyler from southbound Pacific Coast Highway when she failed to yield for the truck traveling northbound on the highway. The truck driver, 32-year-old Jimmy Prado of Santa Paula, attempted to swerve out of the way, but hit the mustang and took out an electric walk/stop sign.
Prado complained of head, neck and back pain. He was transported to the hospital, but the Lost Hills spokesperson said his injuries were not considered serious. Bryant received a ticket for failing to yield. She was not injured.
Streisand launches fundraising effort against heart disease
Malibu entertainer Barbra Streisand has launched a $10 million internet fundraising effort to combat heart disease, the nation’s number one killer of women. Streisand said she will match the first $5 million received. Contributions can be made at www.crowdrise.com/barbrastreisand.
The Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute will be recipient of the funds. “The Women’s Heart Center is one of the leaders in advancing heart care, research and education focused on women,” Streisand said. “Shockingly, we are 50 years behind on the research, since up until recently women have been treated based on tests and diagnostics done mostly on men.”
Streisand continued, “I am reaching out to everyone to donate whatever they can, no matter how small, because heart disease takes the lives of more women than all cancers combined. If you have a woman in your life that you care about-a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend?-please join me in helping this important campaign get off to a great start.”
Stairwell saga returns to Coastal Commission
A private stairwell proposed for a coastal bluff off Westward Beach is expected to go before the California Coastal Commission when it meets Nov. 17 at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. The controversial item that was rejected by Malibu’s Planning Commission and approved by the City Council was supposed to go before the Coastal Commission in June, but was removed from the agenda. As it had then, Coastal staff has recommended the project be rejected.
The staff report states that the project should be rejected because the Malibu Local Coastal Program (LCP) does not allow for the construction of private stairwells on coastal bluffs. Also, it says this particular project would disturb what it considers to be an environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA) of native bluff scrub. If project owner Clark Drane were given special consideration, the staff report states, then other Malibu residents with similar permit requests would demand the same treatment.
Coastal staff considers the area to be an ESHA despite admitting it has been disturbed and that non-native vegetation has been introduced to it.
The city council vote last year to approve the permit was a 3-2 decision and included a heated exchange between then Councilmember Andy Stern and Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich. City staff had recommended against the approval.
At the planning commission meeting that followed, Commissioner John Mazza apologized to city staff for the City Council rejecting their recommendation. He said the council had “ignored the law” and compared the permit approval (which forced the city staff to rewrite language justifying the permit) to Vice President Dick Cheney ordering lawyers to write torture memos saying torture wasn’t torture. Several council members at the following meeting criticized Mazza for his comments.
Also at the meeting, the commission will consider another item that had been scheduled for a previous meeting, but was removed from the agenda. It is appeal of the Malibu Planning Commission’s June approval of a 2,500-square-foot office building at the site of an abandoned gas station and temporary eco-friendly car wash and detailing service. The site is on Pacific Coast Highway, directly across from the PierView and Windsail properties.
The appeal was filed by Pat Healy of the Malibu Coalition for Slow Growth. She said it violates a number of Malibu LCP features, including those concerning height, landscaping and open space requirements, wastewater treatment and parking.
For the Coastal Commission to hear an appeal, it must determine there is a “substantial issue” regarding the local government’s approval that should be further reviewed. This is what happened earlier with the stairwell case, and this determination is usually a formality. But for this item, coastal staff says no substantial issue exists.
“The development is relatively minor in scope, doesn’t have a significant adverse effect on significant coastal resources, has little precedential [sic] value, and doesn’t raise issues of regional or statewide significance,” the staff report states.
A majority of the commission must reject the staff recommendation for the appeal to go forward.