With a new state law granting it the power, at long last, to dissolve the Las Tunas Geological Hazardous Abatement District (GHAD), the City Council Monday denied a request from the district to postpone the dissolution while the district works on a plan for preventing beach erosion.

The council’s action came despite a request for delaying the dissolution from Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sheila Kuehl, who, acting on the city’s behalf, sponsored the legislation granting the city its new dissolution powers.

The city, in 1994, attempted to dissolve the district after it produced a plan for preventing erosion on Las Tunas Beach that the city deemed unacceptable. The district, challenging the city’s right to dissolve it, sued the city in 1994. The trial court ruled in the city’s favor, but a court of appeal said the state law on GHADs did not permit the city to undertake the dissolution.

With its hands tied, the city turned to the legislature to grant it the dissolution power. Kuehl, working at the city’s request, successfully sponsored the bill amending the law on GHADs. The bill, which will take effect in January, was signed by Gov. Pete Wilson last week.

At Monday’s meeting, the district requested that the council postpone a dissolution proceeding until March. By that time, the district had hoped to have a plan for controlling erosion on Las Tunas Beach to submit for the city’s review. Kuehl sent a representative from her office and a letter encouraging the council to grant the district additional time. In her letter, Kuehl said she supported GHADs as a tool for focusing on

special environmental problems. But most council members were so exasperated by the past behavior of the district, they were in no mood to extend its life.

“The GHAD has opposed us every step of the way, and now they’re asking us for favors,” said Councilman Walt Keller.

Council members Carolyn Van Horn and Tom Hasse said they would entertain an extension if, before the end of January, the district had made progress on its plan for controlling sand erosion.

“I think this is an organization that needs a carrot-and-stick approach,” said Hasse.

Councilman Harry Barovsky and Mayor Joan House expressed concern that the city was ignoring Kuehl’s request to grant the extension.

“This bill would not have happened without her assistance,” said Barovsky. “For us not to honor her request would be foolhardy at best.”

But the other council members said they would rather wait to see if an extension was merited, based on any work the district does before the end of January.

The council voted 4-1 to deny the request for the delay. Councilwoman Joan House opposed the motion.

If the district is dissolved, the legislation provides that the district’s remaining funds shall be distributed on a pro rata basis to the property owners in the district.

For animal lover Lisa Sprafka it was a heart-breaking end to a long night. For three hours she worked to comfort a young deer that had been hit by a car and left by the side of the road. For three hours, she tried to find an agency to help. For three hours, she waited for animal control. When the injured animal was put to sleep, she turned away in tears.

Getting someone to respond was frustrating from the start. When she went to the local fire station, they gave her a shrug. A sheriff’s deputy told her to suffocate the deer with a plastic bag or run it over with her car. He may have been kidding, but to Sprafka, it was far from funny. “He told me they’re not allowed to shoot them anymore, and he was serious,” Sprafka recalls.

There, at Avenida de Encinal, she comforted the doe while neighbors tried to get an animal control agency to respond. A call was placed to California Wildlife Center, a 24-hour emergency response agency in Malibu Canyon. While wildlife emergencies vary, this particular case would ordinarily have fallen under the jurisdiction of California Fish and Game, but after reviewing the circumstances by telephone, the agency turned the case over to animal control. An officer from the Agoura Animal Shelter responded and decided the deer was beyond saving.

While killing the doe seemed to be a drastic and unnecessary measure, as far as Sprafka was concerned, it was probably the most humane one. “There are not always happy endings,” said Wildlife Center Executive Director Aaron Frank. “Sometimes euthanizing is better than having the animal suffer.” The center’s president, Rebecca Dmytryk, adds that broken legs are a lot more serious for animals than they are for people, especially wild animals. “If it can’t walk and it can’t run, it can’t survive on its own.”

The wildlife center is still renovating its new facility in Malibu Canyon to rehabilitate injured animals, but not all can be saved. As Dmytryk points out, “We want people to remember that wild animals are wild.”

Another thing the group wants people to remember is that deer are migrating at this time of year. That means they will be crossing the paths of both people and cars, and drivers are advised to be careful and alert. A little extra caution last week might have spared the life of one little deer traveling on Avenida de Encinal and spared Sprafka a few tears.

The California Wildlife Center responds to sick, injured or ophaned wildlife 24 hours a day. Call 457-WILD.

About 50 residents of Ramirez Canyon sat in on the Sept. 28 City Council meeting. They had no item on the agenda, but many spoke during time for public comment. Their complaint is with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

“The conservancy is in violation of the zoning law of the city of Malibu because it is conducting a commercial facility without permission from the city,” said Mindy Sheps, executive director of Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund. “It’s an ongoing nuisance. It creates safety hazards for our children. It spoils the bucolic nature of our canyon.”

In 1993, Barbra Streisand deeded her 22-acre estate to the SMMC. For the past two years, the conservancy has been offering the property for weddings, corporate outings, dinner parties, bar mitzvahs and garden tours.

Residents say last year the Streisand Center rented the property for 33 events of more than 20 people, seven of which had more than 100 people. They say increased traffic and heavy trucks have damaged their private road and that they are frequently subjected to loud music from the facility. They also say the facility is creating an increase in a septic problem that is next to a blue-line stream, one that runs directly into the ocean.

The street “is like a big family driveway,” said resident Richard Schultz, who told council members he feared for neighborhood children. “Now, it is dangerous.”

City Attorney Christi Hogin said that staff had been meeting with the conservancy in an effort to resolve the conflict with the neighbors. Hogin said another meeting has been scheduled but, if no is agreement reached, the city will have to decide what to do next. “Either litigation, or we give up on it. Those are our two choices.”

The council decided to put the item on the next closed session. At that time, council members will discuss the possibility of future litigation against the conservancy.

The most lengthy discussion at the council meeting focused on the city’s acquisition of Charmlee Park. There seemed to be no doubt the city should accept the Quitclaim Deed from Los Angeles County but, for three hours, speakers presented their views, and the council debated whether to add deed restrictions that would limit the park to its current uses.

City staff recommended the council not approve the deed restrictions. City Manager Harry Peacock stated in the staff report, “Indeed, if the Objectives of the General Plan are followed, Charmlee Park has no need for special restrictive covenants.” Peacock added that it could be contrary to the provisions of the General Plan, which calls for parks the size of Charmlee to be regional in nature and serve the entire population. The staff report also called into question putting restrictions on a park that will cost $100,000 per year in operating expenses, stating, “Decisions and choices about parks and their cost are serious policy questions for any community. It is not something one rushes into.”

“My soul is connected to that park and to those trees,” said tree-surgeon Ronn Hayes, who lives near Charmlee Park. “Can’t we have one place left in our community that is sacred.” Hayes told council members that the deed restrictions were necessary in order to protect the park.

Paul Russell, of the Charmlee Nature Preserve Foundation, said he represented homeowners near Charmlee in speaking in favor of the restrictions. “They would not restrict the public from enjoying Charmlee’s unique resources,” he said.

“But they would protect those resources.”

Representatives from a group called People Achieving Recreation and Community Service (PARCS) spoke against the deed restrictions. “Our group, PARCS, is for passive recreation, so we’re in support of Charmlee being kept in its beautiful state,” said Laureen Sills, who explained what the group was opposed to was the process. “Everyone’s needs in the community should have been discussed before the results were written in stone.That document is legal and binding,” she added. “It’s forever. People should have known about it and, at least, had a chance to discuss it.”

The deed restrictions were approved by a unanimous vote.

Former Malibuite Larry Hagman — better known as oil baron J.R. Ewing of the ever-running TV show “Dallas” — posed for pictures Saturday with Republican congressional candidate Randy Hoffman and his supporters. Hoffman is challenging Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman for the 24th Congressional District, which includes Malibu and communities between Van Nuys and Thousand Oaks.

While Hagman lunched with supporters at the $50-a-head reception in Calabasas, Hoffman reported on three days of meetings with political action committees in Washington and plans for one of the most politically targeted seats in the country for the Nov. 3 election.

Hagman said he “only goes after candidates who make sense.” Hoffman, a millionaire high-tech entrepreneur, is running on themes of “real world experience for Congress,” and government accountability.

Hoffman reported he had raised more than $50,000 in Washington. At a reporters’ briefing, campaign manager Todd Slosek said this new money combined with the $530,000 Hoffman has already put into his campaign and the $200,000 reported at the end of June, should boost Hoffman’s war chest to $800,000 by the end of September. The funds would be used for campaign mailers, cable TV, precinct walking and absentee ballots, Hoffman said.

Future high-profile fundraisers include an Oct. 8 luncheon with former Vice President Dan Quayle, an Oct. 9 evening reception with Rep. Mary Bono and probably an Oct. 15 morning rally with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Slosek said.

At the reporter’s briefing, Hoffman proposed that employees be allowed to put one-tenth of their Social Security payroll deduction into a personalized savings account. And, like President Clinton the same day, Hoffman said that 100 percent of the $1.6 trillion budget surplus projected over the next 10 years should be reserved for the Social Security system until it is reformed. The official Republican position is 90 percent of the budget surplus to go towards Social Security, and 10 percent for tax cuts, as passed by the House of Representatives Saturday in the “Taypayers Relief Act of 1998,” (HR 4579).

At the urging of Planning Director Craig Ewing, the Planning Commission is for now putting aside discussion of any specific provisions of a proposed hillside housing ordinance, and instead is focusing on what types of hillside properties it would like to see more highly regulated.

At a special workshop last week on the proposed regulations, Ewing told commission members that now is the time to concentrate on the commission’s goals for regulating hillside housing.

“You need . . . to come to grips with what you want to do with hillside development,” said Ewing.

His comments followed a discussion with the public that ranged from the philosophy of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, to the highly detailed suggestions for legislation from another, albeit less famous one, Ed Niles.

Ewing asked commissioners to determine whether they were interested in regulating architectural style or just mass and scale on hillsides. He also told them to focus on what types of properties they want to regulate: those visible only from PCH, those visible from smaller roads or other properties, or only those situated on slopes.

Commission Chair Charleen Kabrin wavered on the issue of architectural style. She said she did not think the commission was interested in regulating style, but, on the other hand, some styles, she said, lead to larger structures. Under the city’s General Plan, she said, the commission may be approving homes that “don’t fit.”

Kabrin read from a book on architect Wright, whose philosophy on the appearance of houses, she said, summed up her sentiments as well. Quoting Wright, she said homes should be “organic” and “quiet.” And, echoing former Attorney General Ed Meese and his famous “I-know-it-when-I-see-it” definition of pornography, Kabrin said of hillside houses, “I don’t know what is right, but I know when something is not right.”

Niles recommended to the commission that any additional regulation of hillside housing should apply only to those properties with a slope over 33 percent. Regulations on those properties should include height limitations of 36 feet and a second floor limited to one-third of the total square footage of a home, he said.

If the city defined the hillside management zone by its slope characteristics, Niles said, prospective property buyers would know whether a certain lot would be subject to additional regulation. Only those over 33 percent, he said, should be reviewed by the commission. “I want it to get away from being so damn discretionary,” Niles said.

Commissioner Jo Ruggles brought copies of hillside housing ordinances from other cities as sources for drafting one for Malibu. “Let’s look at what other cities are doing,” she said. “They’re grappling with the same problems.”

Commissioner Ed Lipnick wondered why the commission was not discussing regulations that would apply city-wide, not just to hillside homes.

Kabrin said the commission was focusing on hillside homes because of their visual impact. Ewing said the regulations would be unfair to flat properties because, for instance, second floors on flat lots do not slope up.

Niles, however, said the city was acting in a discriminatory manner by not including beachfront lots in the proposed regulations.

“What about the beach?” he asked. “How come I can’t see the beach?” Niles said he thought the city is facing the prospect of a hillside property owner taking legal action against it because of its different development standards.

The next workshop on the proposed hillside regulations is today (Thursday) at 7 p.m. in City Hall.