Dear Editor,
lt is very clear that the Planning Commission majority is a “property rights” proponent yet do not consider residents who’ve lived here for decades over out of town developers – so sad and will cost their sitting council members re-election if this continues.
When this comes to the Consent Calendar in two weeks we hope that you can reconsider the WRONG decision the commission made on this last night — choosing a Beverly Hills developer with no intention of living there and profiting from his very minimal investment, barely $500K for the “junk” land, and increasing our fire risk after the worst disaster in US history, over our established neighbors, our scenic views and the environment. This is tragic.
Why didn’t the Commission look at the Adams’ deed who have lived there for 25 years? This was used to approve their pool, pool equipment, etc. only a few years ago where now suddenly this applicant wants to build. You continually ask us to “trust the staff” yet they relentlessly put developers ahead of fire victims and regular residents and make inexcusable errors like this. I asked both the city attorney, Kellan Martz, and Maureen Tamuri to contact me about this project before you heard it with Zero response. The only response I received was from Rebecca telling me to stop texting Kellan which I Never did and don’t even have his cell phone number! How’s that for staff being responsive to residents? Not Rebecca’s fault of course as she was relaying the message from our entitled city attorney, she is Always responsive.
Regardless of the title dispute, where this application should definitely be denied, the codes are being defied. This project, highlighted in Don Schmitz’s strange comparison of the two images showing the obvious blight of a structure on the Ridgeline, is definitely not in compliance as it is the only huge wide home viewed from PCH on that hillside. It has also already destroyed much ESHA by grading the bluff and plans on destroying even more. Why would the city continue to encourage and reward this illegal behavior?
Your biology, geology and code enforcement staff need to be more strict on these egregious projects and leave our fire rebuilds alone. This is just one of hundreds of overdeveloped projects that continually waste our Planning and building and safety departments’ time and $, hindering our families from returning to our homes. This needs to STOP.
I hope that Marni Kamins joining the Planning Commission can bring more empathy for actual residents and common sense to you all.
To put our Malibu residents once again in a position to pay for an appeal is a travesty. Rebecca, please send everything required to appeal this decision when necessary.
Jo Drummond, Malibu