News analysis

By Arnold G. York/Publisher

The heat generated by the code enforcement issue was apparent early in the meeting, as many attending expressed frustration and felt they had been lied to by a succession of former and present City Council members who had promised grandfathering and delivered something that was far less. Several, and they asked their names not be used for fear of retaliation, felt the Malibu law had turned several good-faith, innocent buyers of property on Point Dume and in Malibu Park into potential criminals because of unpermitted structures and a general enforcement attitude that seemed to say to them, “You were guilty until proven innocent.” Many felt fearful about disputing the code enforcement process and expressed specific fear there would in fact be retaliation by city officials.

The public meeting got off to a particularly rocky start when Lucile Keller, wife of Councilman and candidate Walt Keller, showed up and began to debate with some of the attendees. Keller, a former member of the General Plan Task Force and presently part of the group drafting the Local Coastal Plan, was charged by several at the meeting as one of the people responsible for these Draconian Laws. The discussion quickly deteriorated, and finally the chair of the meeting, Paul Major, asked Keller to leave, which she did although clearly upset by what had transpired.

The meeting concluded with the group deciding to begin their organizational efforts to find others equally under the gun and then to bring their concerns to the City Council. The group, which hasn’t yet chosen a name, can be reached at PO Box 29201, Heathercliff #134, Malibu 90265-1446 or at 457.2920. Its next meeting is set for Jan. 22 at the Point Dume Marine Science School library.

After receiving a last-minute letter from Barbra Streisand requesting a postponement, and seeing about 20 people wanting to speak, the City Council Monday night allowed public comment but continued a decision on plans for her Point Dume home until next month.

The Planning Commission earlier approved the megastar’s 11,000-plus-square-foot project, including a two-story, 28-foot-high house, a detached garage and two basements. Streisand’s representative at the meeting, Jamie Harnish, said the basements were needed to inventory her memorabilia for the Smithsonian.

The council still must to decide whether Streisand and her husband, James Brolin, were granted special waivers to allow overbuilding on a small lot and reducing setbacks from an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area on a primary coastal bluff.

Streisand’s letter asked for the postponement until an unspecified date so she and Brolin could meet with neighbors, explore their concerns and “set straight some misperceptions about what kind of structure we would like to build.” The couple would then “move ahead after communication has worked its wonders and achieved consensus.” [See Letters to the Editor for the full text of the letter.]

The council, responding to charges of favoritism for celebrities, as well as jibes from the audience about the upcoming municipal election in April, postponed the agenda item until Feb. 28.

The structure would be set back 75 feet from the bluff’s edge. Ordinarily, development on blufftop property must be kept 100 feet from coastal scrub. The beach below the bluff is the only one in Point Dume owned by residents of the neighboring street.

Next-door neighbors Eric and Cheryl Jacobson, who appealed the Planning Commission decision twice last year, told the council they were concerned with the magnitude of the proposed development and the extent of departure from neighborhood standards.

“This application has been approved even though it exceeds the property development and design standards for size, as it pertains to neighborhood standards, by 232 percent,” Eric Jacobson said. “[P]erhaps most importantly, the setback for an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area was unnecessarily waived … . I’m also alarmed at what appears to be a preferential application of the property development and design standards for this particular project.

“One of the things I’ve noticed during the planning process for this project is that I feel we are involved in a shell game,” Jacobson continued. “This project is disguised as a single-family residential home when, in fact, it is truly a large entertainment facility posing as a two-bedroom house where much of the uncounted bulk is underground or in the single stories that rise 26 feet in height.”

Other neighbors, including Denise Ferris, claim the commercial nature of some of Streisand’s activities (such as interviews and editing) has caused excessive traffic. “Because of the cul de sac, every car has to make a right turn,” Ferris said. “The TV crews and caterers are endangering our children and animals.”

Overwatering is endangering bluff stability, council members were told. Dusty Peak, a 40-year resident and avid surfer, said water from the bluffs falls on him and offered to show the city where Johnny Carson’s lights fell down.

Mari Stanley, who lives within 500 feet of the Brolins, claims water from the area was flowing onto her property and called for an investigation of the watering bills. She also claims the neighborhood beach was used illegally when it was photographed for the record jacket for Streisand’s “Higher Ground” CD, and that Streisand’s film “The Mirror Has Two Faces” was edited on Streisand’s property.

Stanley also said Streisand’s staff repeatedly ignored requests to slow down their driving.

She also said the Brolin house was “not a residence but a storage facility.”

Before Streisand’s letter promising never to donate the home to a “state organization” was read into the record, Ramirez Canyon Homeowner Association President Ruth White called for people to protest possible California Coastal Commission approval today (Thursday) of the Ramirez Canyon Public Park. Streisand donated that 22-acre site to The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy seven years ago.

The City Council has probably never looked younger or fitter than it did Friday. Still, debates were emphatic and positions were held as staunchly as always.

Youth-in-Government Day brought Malibu High School students from the government classes of teachers Adam Panish and Harry Keiley together with various city government officials. After meeting at City Hall individually with their assigned mentors, the students role played in a mock City Council meeting.

City Treasurer Pete Lippman hosted student Mike Seider in preparation for Seider’s presentation to the mock council. After recounting a brief history of the city, Lippman explained to Seider the responsibilities of a treasurer and city auditor.

“When people talk about investments, the first thing they talk about is yield,” Lippman said. “That’s third for us. First is safety, second is liquidity.”

Several conference rooms away, Planning Commissioners Ken Kearsley and Ed Lipnick were tussling with the political intransigence of students Angalika Oatway and Robin Baltrushes, while Drew Purvis was coaching Jules Neale on issues faced by Building & Safety.

Baltrushes and Oatway held fast to building “nothing” on the land known as the Chili Cook-Off site, at the corner of Webb Way and PCH. Purvis gently explained, “In a city, you can’t have zero commercial development.”

“Let’s say it’s your property. What would you do with it?” Lipnick continued. Requesting clarification, Baltrushes wondered, “Where would you have the Chili Cook-off?” Lipnick agreed to find another place for it and re-posed his question. Baltrushes acceded to only a park on the site.

Kearsley quizzed Oatway in preparation for her appearance before the mock council, and she snapped back with the correct answers.

“So, do you think you have an idea of what we do?” Kearsley asked Oatway. “Oh, yeah!” she enthused.

After the individual mentoring sessions, the students were bussed to the Michael Landon Center for the mock council session. Those students paired with council members sat with their mentors, along with students Jesse Erwin in the city clerk’s spot and Daniel Geren sitting in for the city manager.

The mock council members heard from those students role playing as various city personnel, posing questions and then voting on the proposed agenda items.

The council heard an appeal from a Planning Commission decision denying a request to build a larger-than-allowable home. After intense questioning by student Jordan Tabak, the mock council unanimously approved the commission’s decision.

A decision on a cable franchise permit agreement was not so easily reached by the mock council. After a 2-to-2 roll call vote, student Chihara Aoki seemed torn at having to break the tie. Her mentor, Mayor Carolyn Van Horn, quickly noted, “That’s what it feels like,” then sympathetically urged a decision.

For approval of the city’s investment policy, the day’s city treasurer introduced his report to the mock council, Lippman seated beside him. Student Greg Williams, mentored by Councilman Walt Keller, questioned the criteria used. Without prompting from Lippman, Seider listed safety, liquidity and yield. Lippman seemed pleased at the lesson taught, and Seider seemed pleased at the unanimous approval by the mock council.

Other student participants included: Alex Betuel, Julie Platner, Jussie Smollet, Kelly Hine, Shauna Bass, Christopher Marsolek, Forest Howlett, Julie Repp, Jennifer Barrett, Jamie Olsafsky and Brittany Turek.

The idea for the day had been proposed to the City Council by Councilman Tom Hasse. It was coordinated by the Parks & Recreation Department and assisted by Malibu High School staff. “I think the kids learned something, and so did we,” said Hasse. Said Parks & Recreation Supervisor Marilyn Stern, next year she will plan for a full day, allowing for more individual time with the mentors and a longer council session, this year’s council having run well over its allotted time.

Ramirez Canyon residents say they’re fed up with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and they aren’t going to take it any more.

The homeowners plan to descend en masse on the California Coastal Commission meeting today (Thursday) to try to convince the panel to deny the conservancy’s application for more intense commercial use of the Streisand Center.

The secluded residential property, with its five houses, was donated to the conservancy by Barbra Steisand in 1993 with the stipulation that it be used as a think tank for environmental studies.

But after the conservancy moved its offices from Solstice Canyon onto the Streisand property, things have taken a different course, residents say, and intense use of the center for fund-raising is severely compromising the fragile environment of the canyon and creating safety issues on its narrow road.

Recognizing there might be multiple problems with the site, shortly after the conservancy took over the property, the state Finance Department issued a memorandum stating state funds could not be used to support the facility, said attorney Mindy Sheps, a Ramirez Canyon resident.

“The conservancy’s take on that was they needed to generate money from the site to support themselves,” Sheps said. “They realized early on they couldn’t afford to run it as a small think tank. They should have recognized they had a white elephant and sold the property.”

The conservancy applied to the Coastal Commission for “after-the-fact” approval to convert the five single-family residences into offices and to operate a commercial enterprise on the property.

Coastal’s staff submitted its recommendations in October for the panel to consider at its November meeting. Staff recommendations included: restricting all functions to 40 participants or less, no more than 72 such events annually; requiring the conservancy to transport guests in no more than seven vans to the site from sufficient private offsite parking (excluding the Winding Way Trailhead lot); and improving the septic systems and submitting a revised plan for the adequate immediate evacuation of all assembled guests.

Coastal then exercised its one-time right to postpone the scheduled November hearing, allowing the conservancy to submit an amendment to its Coastal Permit Application Dec. 8 (one year after its original application), asking for the right to hold 365 small (40 guests or less) events; 365 commercial special events (with 150-200 participants); 260 canyon and guided tours (40 or less); to convert its six residential lots to a public park and implement a Recreational Transit Program.

Coastal staff issued a revised report Dec. 22. Residents say they were appalled to learn of the staff’s reversal and of the escalation in the proposed use of the property.

Staff countered it now has more information regarding health and safety issues, such as fire and septic capacity. The center, however, does not meet even minimum county fire requirements for public events, and the septic system, which the conservancy acknowledged was woefully inadequate even for residential purposes, has not been improved.

“Regrettably, the conservancy has been aware, since at least 1994, that its septic systems leached into the adjacent blue-line stream,” said Sheps. The conservancy, in its amended application, says it will install three portable toilets.

The larger issue, opponents say, is the Revised Staff Report failure to discuss Coastal Act Section 30250, which requires that: “commercial development be located within, contiguous with, or in close proximity to existing developed areas able to accommodate it.”

“The commission would never approve this use if an ordinary developer were the applicant because commercial uses are too intense for this rural-residential environment and the risks too great,” said Sheps, who estimates the new plan would generate 168,500 vehicle trips per year more than the number generated by the property’s five single-family homes.

In an attempt to put the project in context, Sheps notes as the property is zoned for one house per five acres, the project exceeds by 840 percent the intensity of use permitted under Malibu’s zoning code and Malibu’s land use plan.

In the absence of a Local Coastal Plan — Malibu has never completed its plan though a city commission, chaired by Lucile Keller, has been working on a Local Coastal Plan for years — applications go to the Coastal Commission.

Ruth White, president of the Ramirez Canyon Homeowners Association, said the group has filed a lawsuit against the conservancy for “overburdening the road.” She said conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston requested postponement of the coastal hearing. “Around Christmas time, he called his rubber-stamp board to a meeting on the creation of a new Ramirez Canyon Park. Nobody asked us if we wanted to be a park.” Edmiston was unavailable for comment as of press time Tuesday.