Heal the Bay leader threatens to pull support for future funding for city projects.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
Much to the dismay of four environmental groups, the Malibu City Council certified the environmental impact report and approved a coastal development permit and conditional use permit for the construction of the $45 million Legacy Park. The park’s final design approval and authorization to bid and seek construction management proposals will be discussed at the next council meeting on March 19.
In a 3-2 vote, the council denied an appeal filed against Legacy Park’s EIR in January by Heal the Bay, Santa Monica Bay Keeper, Malibu Surfing Association and Surfrider Foundation. The groups say the EIR violates the California Environmental Quality Act by not addressing Malibu’s water quality issue of disposal and treatment of sewage from commercial developments in the Civic Center area.
“The promise of what Legacy Park was supposed to be is not being met in any way, shape or form,” Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, told the council. “Legacy Park is basically a storm water detention basin. It’s nice, but it’s not the intent of Legacy Park and why $45 million is going toward it. The project doesn’t address Civic Center wastewater issues.”
The council members’ vote to deny the appeal was preceded by an in-depth presentation of Legacy Park’s finalized EIR by the project’s engineers to disprove any of the claims made against it. The most controversial part of the project is the exclusion of a wastewater treatment center, which was originally part of the plan. The plan does include a storm water treatment facility.
During the presentation, Steve Clary, principal of RMC water and environment, an environmental engineering firm specializing in water recycling and water resources management, said that Legacy Park is not large enough to effectively treat wastewater, but that wastewater treatment plans are in the works.
“The city has approved a wastewater design contract that is proceeding as we speak,” Clary said. “It can proceed in parallel. It has not been forgotten or abandoned.”
City Manager Jim Thorsen said in an interview Tuesday that preliminary work for the wastewater treatment facility has been conducted, and estimated it could take between 12 and 24 months to complete the final design and EIR process.
The La Paz property, located at Civic Center Way and Cross Creek Road, is currently secured for the implementation of the wastewater treatment facility to treat wastewater for the developments in the Civic Center area, Thorsen said. In order for the city to utilize the site, La Paz would have to obtain a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission. If approved, La Paz would dedicate 100,000 square feet to accommodate the wastewater treatment facility.
However, this plan might entail further complications as the Santa Monica Baykeeper in December filed a lawsuit against the city’s approval of both an 112,000-square-foot and a 99,000-square-foot version of the La Paz project. Both plans include a collection of retail, restaurant and office buildings ranging in size from 6,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet. The project needs to receive approval from the California Coastal Commission.
Thorsen said the city has alternative locations for the treatment facility, but that the lands have not yet been secured.
Representatives from all four environmental groups delivered public statements to the council, urging them to discontinue the construction of Legacy Park until a wastewater treatment facility is implemented.
“Legacy Park was originally intended to provide a desperately needed comprehensive solution to the chronic water quality problems of Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach,” Tom Ford, executive director of Santa Monica Baykeeper, said last month. “During the 2008 summer dry weather season, Surfrider Beach exceeded water quality standards 74 times. The approved project will not fix even one of these water quality violations-violations that occur when the beach is most heavily used.”
Tatiana Guares, staff attorney for Santa Monica Baykeeper, in Monday’s meeting said the city is not abiding by the requirements set forth by California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
“The CEQA requires you, the decision makers, to sit down and read the info and be clear about what the project is,” Guares told the council. “I’m not sure why we need to operate under the atmosphere that ‘something is out there but it doesn’t apply to us. I am here on behalf of people who surf and complain about rashes.”
Mayor Andy Stern, Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Barovsky and Councilmember John Sibert voted to certify the EIR, while council members Jefferson Wagner and Pamela Conley Ulich opted for what Conley Ulich called a “long-term approach.”
Conley Ulich said that though conducting research to evaluate the possible integration of storm water and wastewater might stall the project by six months, “everything would work together and be more cost effective.”
Stern, on the other hand, said approving construction of Legacy Park serves as an immediate step in the right direction.
“Not one of the environmentalists said ‘don’t do this, you’re harming the environment’, they just said ‘you need to do more,'” he said.
However, in a Web blog Tuesday Gold wrote: “The Malibu City Council’s Karl Rove-like approach to policy spin carried the day last night. The City Council voted 3-2 to approve a severely flawed EIR with Councilmembers Zuma Jay and Pamela Conley Ulich supporting the environmental and surfing communities’ effort to fix the EIR and move forward on a comprehensive solution to the epic problems at Surfrider and the Lagoon. Storm water and wastewater treatment and recycling must be part of an overall strategy to protect aquatic life and human health, but the city continues to piecemeal these efforts.”
Noting that Heal the Bay had helped advocate for more than $10 million in state funds to go to the Legacy Park acquisition, as well as other city environmental projects, Gold said the future would be different. “This time, the city council may have gone too far in labeling the environmental community the bad guys,” Gold said. “Don’t look for Heal the Bay to go to bat for Malibu funding any time soon until elected officials have a firm, legally binding commitment for construction of a Civic Center water recycling facility with timelines and milestones.”