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Scaling down Malibu

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Winter is the season in which Malibuites try to keep their home temperatures as warm as the temperature was during the summer, when they complained about the heat. Skimming the newspaper I read about the brutally frigid weather on the right coast of the United States over the last several weeks. I was thus prompted to recall the Malibuite Optical Temperature Gradient. This scale was devised by the Lilly’s Caf 8:00 coffee group and visitors under the tutelage of Coach Cliff “tough it out” Hirsch. It allows Malibuites to optically estimate the temperature. While I personally have not verified the MOTG’s accuracy or credits, I recall Cliff saying that it goes something like this.

Degrees Fahrenheit:

* 85-90: Annual Malibu Kiwanis Chili Cook-off (discourse by Paul Grisante)

* 65-85: Malibu Chamber of Commerce weather (Mark Ball)

* 65: Malibuites put on sweaters (if they can find one) (Tina Peoples)

* 60: Malibu residents turn on their heat (Demetri Wood)

* 50-55: Malibu Little League Parade (Dermont Stoker)

* 45: Malibuites turn off heat in swimming pools (Lou Drobnick)

* 35: Italian cars don’t start (Joe Cosentino)

* 32: Real water freezes (a George Wing exclusive)

* 30: Malibuites plan excursions to the Sahara Desert (Lynda Marsolek)

* 25: Malibu Creek wastewater and mud freezes (an Ed Niles liturgy)

* 23: Malibu residents fuss loudly about the weather (Libby St. Henri)

* 21: Tourists swim unclothed in ocean waters (Frank Miller)

* 20: Malibu politicians begin to talk about the homeless (Al Carson)

* 19: Zuma Travel offers “discount summer vacation packages” (Marjorie Hollenrake)

* 15: French cars don’t start (Olivia Thornton)

* 12: Malibu pets demand to sleep in your bed (a Doug O’Brien observance)

* 10: Malibu City Council does something about the homeless (Martin Sheen)

* 5: American cars don’t start (Ron Merriman)

* 0: East coast tourists put on T-shirts (John Payne)

* -5: German cars don’t start (Tim Wilhelm)

* -10: Malibu household pets demand to sleep in your pajamas (Bob Wittham)

* -15: Japanese cars don’t start (Charlie Hayashita)

* -20: Super Bowl travel packages offer hot cocoa at the game (Eric Greenberg)

* -25: Washington D. C. congressional hot air freezes (a Ray Voge observation)

* -30: Tourists close bathroom windows at the Casa Malibu (Dr. Lou Bonann)

* -35: Hell freezes over and Mark “The Lion” Herron finally gets the girl.

Tom Fakehany

Further enlightenment

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Two recent commentaries in your paper, “A Little Light Reading” (Jan. 7) and “We’ll leave a light on for you” (Jan. 14), have addressed the issue of night lighting and attempts by the Malibu Planning Commission to regulate it. I commend the city for engaging this important issue and offer for your consideration the following information about the environmental effects of “light pollution.”

Though civilizations have attempted to light the night for centuries, decreasing cost and improved technology since World War II have resulted in the wholesale illumination of the night with mercury vapor and sodium vapor streetlights, as well as other commercial and residential lighting. Astronomers, who found the glow of urban agglomerations impeding their research, first documented the detrimental environmental effects of night lighting and recognized it as light pollution.1

As the night sky and its millions of stars have been gradually replaced by the dull glow of the city for the majority of Americans, many have never even seen the Milky Way. Those who grow up in the city are astounded and awestruck upon seeing the unpolluted night sky when they first cast an upward gaze outside the reach of city lights. Anyone who has contemplated the human place in the universe under a starlit sky recognizes that its loss is a significant degradation of the environment.

Light pollution also has significant biological effects. Evidence suggests that unmated mockingbirds sing longer at night in lighted versus unlighted areas.2 Other research shows that songbirds sing significantly earlier in the morning in artificially lit parks.3 Cougars will avoid areas that are lit artificially and may miss critical habitat dispersal corridors as a result.4 A recent study in Sacramento showed that crows roost in areas with high nighttime lighting levels,5 and others have hypothesized that artificial lighting allows crows to avoid predation from owls.6 Crows are a native species, but they are also aggressive, and artificially increased population levels can be detrimental to other native bird species. Artificial night lighting affects the behavior of nocturnal frogs, reducing their visual acuity.7 Artificial lights attract nocturnal moths that are subject to increased predation there.8

The Environmental Review Board for Los Angeles County, which reviews development in sensitive resource areas in the Coastal Zone above the city of Malibu, recognizes the environmental effects of artificial night lighting and recommends that that outdoor lighting be directed downward, of low intensity, at low height and shielded, and that security lights be put on a motion detector.9

Many local jurisdictions across the country have implemented or are implementing night pollution ordinances. Precise engineering standards have been developed to define and regulate light pollution, whether its source is inside or outside a home. The International Dark-Sky Association can provide these standards as well as sample ordinances.10

Reducing night light, both for municipal streetlights and on private property, can provide considerable financial savings and significant environmental benefit. Malibu should make every effort to maintain its view of the night sky and protect its natural resources by implementing an independent light pollution ordinance or including light pollution standards in the hillside ordinance under consideration.

1. White, A. G. 1974. Excessive light as a form of urban created pollution: a selected bibliography. Monticello, IL: Council of Planning Librarians. Crawford, D. L 1991. Light pollution, radio interference, and space debris: proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Colloquium no. 112, held 13 to 16 August 1989 in Washington, DC San Francisco, CA: Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Upgren, Arthur R. 1996. Night blindness: light pollution is changing astronomy, the environment, and our experience of nature. The Amicus Journal Winter: 22-25

2. Derrickson, K C. 1988. Variation in repertoire presentation in northern mockingbirds. Condor 90(3): 592-606.

3. Bergen, F., and M. Abs. 1997. Etho-ecological study of the singing activity of the blue tit (Parus caeruleus), great tit (Parus major) and chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs). Journal fuer Ornithologie 138:451-467.

4. Beier, P. 1995. Dispersal of juvenile cougars in fragmented habitat. Journal of Wildlife Management 59(2):228-237.

5. W. Paul Gorenzel and Terrell P. Salmon. 1995. Characteristics of American Crow urban roosts in California. Journal of Wildlife Management 59(4):638-645.

6. Carolee Caffrey in Brody, Jane E.1997. The too-common crow is getting too close for comfort. New York Times, May 27.

7. Buchanan, B. W.1993. Effects of enhanced lighting on the behaviour of nocturnal frogs. Animal Behaviour 45(5):893-899.

8. Frank, K D.1989. Impact of outdoor lighting on moths. Paper read at Light Pollution, Radio Interference and Space Debris, 1991, at Washington, D.C. Rydell, J., and H.J. Baagoe. 1996. Street lamps increase bat predation on moths. Entomologisk Tidskrift 117:129-135. Svensson, A. M., and J. Rydell. 1998. Mercury vapour lamps interfere with the bat defence of tympanate moths (Operophtera spp.; Geometridae) . Animal Behaviour 55:223-226.

9. Minutes of the Environmental Review Board (ERB) Meeting of September 21, 1998.

10. International Dark-Sky Association, 3535 N. Stewart, Tucson, AZ 85716, Telephone: (520) 293-3198.

Travis Longcore,

Land Protection Partners

Gone fishin’

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AGY gets the week off.

Check in next time.

Next time no pie

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When hunger strikes with pangs to the belly

We drive down the street

To Saul’s neighborhood deli

There are munchers and gazers all about

Checking one and other out

We order some soup

And corned beef on rye

And finish up with hot apple pie

But when we get home

We start to regret it

So we take a Rolaids

Go to bed and forget it.

Geraldine Forer Spagnoli

Snow blankets a dolphin fountain last week when the local mountains took 8 inches of the unfamiliar fluffy stuff. Photo by Pam Linn.

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City planning commissioners see light, dark

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Accustomed to driving much of the debate at Planning Commission meetings, the most vocal commissioners signaled Monday that they are moving beyond the proposed hillside housing ordinance to take on additional issues directly tied to the future character of Malibu.

With hearings on the proposed hillside ordinance set for the next time the commission meets, Commission Chair Jo Ruggles, at Monday’s meeting, indicated she plans to push for a dark-sky ordinance limiting the amount of lighting in the city to protect views of the night sky. And Commissioners Charleen Kabrin and Ken Kearsley said they would like to see an area in the city set aside specifically for light industrial businesses.

City officials, including Ruggles, recently learned of the Tucson-based International Dark Sky Assn., an organization that promotes a reduction in light pollution. The association advises communities on how to draw up ordinances to limit urban glare, and it offers sample ordinances from the small number of cities that have adopted them.

Anticipating Ruggles’ request for the samples, the city’s planning staff ordered a set of the samples for the commission’s review. An excited Ruggles thanked the staff and asked to have the item placed on a future agenda. “That’s excellent, [the samples] will really help us,” she said.

Room for more light industry?

On the heels of granting a temporary conditional use permit to allow Malibu Paving Company to remain at its current location at the Trancas shopping center, Kearsley said he would like another area carved out in western Malibu where the company could move to when its two-year permit expires. He said the western part of the city needs not only the paving company, because of the number of private roads in the area, it also needs other light industrial services like an auto repair shop.

Kabrin, who voiced similar sentiments at the last commission meeting, said, “I couldn’t agree more that we need to find a location for those various services.”

She asked Planning Director Craig Ewing for guidance on how the commission could create such a location to meet the community’s unmet needs.

Ewing said the area in the city currently zoned for light industrial uses could be expanded. [The Malibu Times incorrectly reported in its last issue that the city had no light industrial zones. In fact, limited areas within the Civic Center are zoned for those types of activities.]

He said a zoning ordinance and general plan are a collection of values a community holds about itself at the time they are adopted.

“Over time, you make adjustments as new problems come up that you may not have anticipated or because of changes in the make-up of the community,” Ewing said.

Alternatively, he said, additional uses could be added to commercial shopping centers, as was the case with the Malibu Paving Company.

Ewing suggested the City Council is not likely to agree to a zoning change to allow more light industrial uses. It recently considered a proposal to do that at the Trancas shopping center, and it declined to do so. Instead, it added a permitted use at the center, which laid the groundwork for the Malibu Paving Company’s conditional use permit.

In other action, the commission granted a continuance to a property owner on Porterdale Drive, near Winding Way, to give him an opportunity to revise the design of his proposed home. Ruggles, Kabrin and Vice Chair Andrew Stern indicated they would not approve the project because, they said, it would adversely affect neighborhood character and not blend in with the natural topography.

The commission granted the continuance rather than voting up-or-down because, they said, the property owner and architect had worked hard to comply with the General Plan and the zoning ordinance.

Commissioner Ed Lipnick, who recently underwent surgery, was not at the commission meeting.

Steve Tisch, Shirley MacLaine, Gov. Gray Davis and Dyan Cannon offer help to H.E.L.P., which assists 2,500 children per year with special needs, autism and learning disabilities.

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Rod Steiger, Bea Arthur, Tom Dillon and Joe Benincasa support the Actors Fund of America and the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation open a housing complex for entertainment professionals who are suffering from AIDS.

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Council assesses quarterly progress

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Parks and Recreation Director Catherine Walter told the council the owner of a paved, unused lot in the Civic Center recently offered to make the site available for the city’s first skateboard park.

Walter later said the city and the property owner, who she declined to identify, had worked out few details, including whether the city would pay a rental fee for the use of the lot.

She said city officials are currently investigating whether the property has sufficient on-site parking and space for a storage container and restroom. But, she said, the fenced-in lot, next to the GTE building on Cross Creek Road, looks promising. “It’s already built, that’s the beauty of it,” she said.

Walter said she hopes other people in the community with resources to share will help the city meet its recreational needs. “With the limited open space available to us, maybe we’ll have to go in that direction.”

Earlier plans for a park behind City Hall were abandoned when contaminated soil from an underground natural gas tank was discovered at the site.

Construction noise

Officials from the Building and Safety Department met recently with the Malibu Contractors Association to discuss the association’s efforts to limit construction noise on Saturdays.

Residents, seeking relief from construction noise six days a week, recently asked the council to ban construction on Saturdays. But rather than enact a ban, the council asked the association to draw up its own rules to reduce Saturday construction noise.

Gerald Lemonnier, president of the association, said the group is developing a handout for all contractors and subcontractors working in the city. Lemonnier said the handout will explain that the association developed its own rules as a way of avoiding a legislated construction ban. The handout will ask contractors to follow rules limiting the hours of work on Saturday, and reducing construction noise on that day and during the rest of the week, as well.

“We’re trying to develop a work ethic to keep the noise down,” he said.

Tattle-tale neighbors

Keith Young, community services specialist, estimated the city, over the current fiscal year, will issue approximately 1,400 notices of code violations. Young said the overwhelming majority, about 90 percent, of the inspections occur because of residents complaining of activities at their neighbors’ homes.

Young, and Building and Safety Official Vic Peterson, said compared to other cities for which they have worked, Malibu has an unusually high number of code violations. City Manager Harry Peacock said a high number is not surprising for a relatively new city. “People have to get used to the new corporate culture,” he said.

Most of the current cases involve home renovations without a permit.

Wetlands delineation

Planning Director Craig Ewing said Dr. Terry Huffman, the botanist performing the wetlands delineation study of the Civic Center, recently took core samples from the Chili Cook-off site and will return shortly for samples from the parcel west of City Hall.

Huffman told Ewing he is on schedule and plans to have the study results completed by the end of the month.

More sheriff’s deputies to patrol Malibu Park

Lt. Thom Bradstock, Malibu liaison with the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, acting on complaints of Malibu Park residents that drivers are speeding through their neighborhood, requested that the additional traffic enforcement currently in operation on Point Dume now be split between the two neighborhoods. The council agreed to Bradstock’s request and asked him to implement the change immediately.

Another vacancy in public works

Interim Public Works Director John Medina announced he is leaving the city this month for a new position in Washington state.

February 4, 1999

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