I have no problem with Edge building his own home if that is what he really wants to do. I build homes and if I opposed his personal home I would be a hypocrite. Edge professes to be an environmentalist yet he is attempting to grade over 70,000 yards of the side of an undisturbed mountain as a developer for four spec projects. He would be a hypocrite if he fights for this development. His plan would include hauling thousands of trucks of dirt taken from a county project down Sweetwater Mesa, which would be very dangerous. Currently, these four parcels are listed in Homes and Lands for $7,500,000 each. This is not walking the walk of an environmentalist. Hundreds of Malibu residents are opposed to what he intends to do to the mountains.
Twenty years ago, nobody thought a road would be built extending Sweetwater Mesa to the county and then beyond. As land values soared, we now have a developer seeking permits to build just such a road.
There are many lots to the north that have easements to use Sweetwater Mesa. If Edge’s project is developed, nearly 90 percent of the road from Sweetwater Mesa to Piuma Road will be built. Ten years from now another Sweeney or Edge might come along and buy these northern properties and seek permits to finish the connection to Sweetwater Mesa.
James Smith