Supporters of plan voice concerns over
pollution and urban spread in Malibu.
By Kevin Culwell/Special to The Malibu Times
Despite a smattering of outspoken support from Malibu environmentalists who support the California Coastal Commission’s Land Use Plan (LUP) for Malibu, Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Jennings successfully urged the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) Monday to allow the City of Malibu more time to review their case before an advisory letter from the conservancy is sent to the Coastal Commission regarding the LUP.
Claiming the City of Malibu needs ample time to negotiate with opposing sides on the issue, Jennings, who was sworn in as an official member of the SMMC Advisory Committee earlier, said, “There’s a lot of areas we know we’re going to have to disagree on.”
Gary Timm, associate director of the California Coastal Commission, presented the commission’s draft for the LUP to the SMMC, saying, despite the “issues that we’re having trouble resolving, we’ve narrowed the negotiations significantly.”
The main LUP issue causing friction is the state-mandated designation of close to 70 percent of Malibu as an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area (ESHA). Critics lament the confining land-use restrictions, which will make it more expensive and generally toilsome to expand or remodel their existing homes or equestrian facilities, while proponents of the LUP cite the Malibu habitat as reason enough to go forward with the plan.
“It’s going to be very difficult for the two sides to agree,” said committee member Dave Brown. “I’m concerned with Malibu Creek and the allowing of commercial land use.”
Steve Uhring, president of the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy (MCLC), speaking before the committee and claiming his group represents “the true voice of Malibu,” said there has been “a lot of misinformation put out regarding what the citizens want the Coastal Commission to do and what the Coastal Commission is doing to the citizens.”
Citing surveys the MCLC conducted recently, some 75 percent of residents polled put a “high or very high priority on the importance of protecting Malibu’s highly sensitive habitat.”
The Malibu environmentalists attending the meeting agreed.
“I’m very concerned about how Malibu will look in 20, 50, or even 100 years,” said Patt Healy, an environmental activist. “Malibu is the last coastal city in Los Angeles County that hasn’t been totally urbanized.”
Local surfers piped in their vivid support for the plan to the advisory committee as well.
Grant Neye, who represented the Malibu chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, said, because of pollution caused by equestrian facilities and septic tanks built near Malibu Creek, he feels more at risk surfing in Malibu “than I did walking through rice patties that were fertilized with human waste in Vietnam.”
“I see people getting sick all the time in Malibu,” said Neye, who is a registered nurse with Los Angeles County Health Services. “I’ve gotten pink eye, rashes and diarrhea.
“I never got a single infection in Vietnam.”
Bob Purvey, a 30-year surfer who owns a surfing business in Malibu, said the City Council has ignored scientific facts stating pollution problems and proving Malibu is an “ecosystem that is severely dysfunctional.”
“I’m not Erin Brockovich, but I certainly know property rights don’t take priority over public health and safety,” Purvey said.
The lone opponent of the Coastal Commission’s proposed LUP in attendance was Bill Carson, who said the Coastal Commission has used “ham-handed tactics” in forcing this plan upon the community.
“The individuals who own the land have a right to say something about it,” Carson said.
In other developments at the meeting, which lasted more than four hours and pushed midnight by its end, the SMMC passed a resolution authorizing a comment letter encouraging a new Environmental Impact Report be produced for the Ahmanson Ranch Project before development continues.
“There are numerous inconsistencies that will need to be reconciled,” said Steve Craig, commercial development director for Calabasas.