The State Senate will conduct committee hearings next week on a bill that would affect development across California.
By Melissa Caskey / Special to The Malibu Times
Lobbyists in Sacramento are pushing legislators to pass a bill that would revive plans by U2 guitarist The Edge and his associates to construct five luxury mansions on Sweetwater Mesa Road above Serra Canyon, the Los Angeles Times reported.
If passed into law, the bill would force state agencies to recognize a party in possession of a land deed as the property’s owner. Government agencies would need to take an evidenced approach, similar to the court system, in order to challenge ownership of property.
The California Coastal Commission denied the Edge, whose real name is David Evans, and several associates coastal development permits in June 2011 to build five mansions on the sprawling 156-acre property. The denial was made on the basis that the project would result in significant visual impacts and that it would significantly disrupt the local vegetative habitat. Coastal Commission staff also determined that Evans and the other owners, who are each either friends or family, constituted a “unity of ownership,” and that they might seek to sell the houses for profit rather than live in them.
Evans and the other applicants denied that accusation, saying through a spokesperson that they intended to live in the houses.
Assemblyman Ben Hueso of Logan Heights authored the new bill, which he said would allow for more development throughout California. Hueso is a former coastal commissioner. Hueso admitted to the Los Angeles Times that Paul Bauer, a lobbyist hired by Evans last year, gave him the idea to write the piece of legislation. However, Hueso claimed that the purpose is not to push the bill through to solely benefit Evans but to conduct more oversight on “overzealous” state agencies that prevent development throughout the state.
“If we have every agency in California cherry picking projects they don’t like, it’s going to create an enormous problem in our ability to do business in California,” Hueso said.
But Sarah Christi, legislative director for the Coastal Commission, warned the new bill could result in a chilling effect on other state agencies and lead to further harmful development projects.
“The forces who want to maximize their profit above all else are seeking to rewrite the rules in such a way that ensures the state government has limited ability to oversee and to take care of our public trust resources,” said Adam Keats, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Times.
The 8-4 rejection also ruled the plan would damage the ridgeline and surrounding environment. In addition to five mansions, the plan includes the construction of a 6,000-foot access road branching off of Sweetwater Mesa Road.
“In 38 years of this commission’s existence, this is one of the three worst projects that I’ve seen in terms of environmental devastation,” Peter Douglas, the Coastal Commission’s former executive director, said at the time of the ruling. “It’s a contradiction in terms…you can’t be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location given the effects on habitat, land formation, scenic views and water quality.”
After the proposal was rejected, Evans and his associates filed a lawsuit against the commission in August, claiming the commission illegally deprived the plaintiffs from developing their own property and asking the Superior Court to overturn the decision.The case is still pending.