Carbon Beach Homeowner Wants to Transfer View Corridor Impacts

• Seeks to Demolish House on Las Tunas Beach to Accomplish Goal

By Bill Koeneker

A highly controversial proposal by the cofounder of the Hard Rock Cafe empire, Peter Morton, the owner of a mansion on Carbon Beach, to create a view corridor by demolishing another house on Las Tunas Beach has some beachfront neighbors up in arms.
The Malibu Planning Commission has been asked to weigh in on the matter at its meeting next week.
Morton is seeking a demolition permit for a single-family house located at 19862 Pacific Coast Highway to create the offsite view corridor.
Several months ago, Morton, through his permit expediters, the law firm of Latham and Watkins, had originally sought the same permit for a beachfront home on La Costa Beach that raised the ire of neighbors there who immediately hired attorneys and began fighting the request.
Morton, at the time, withdrew his application and the matter was seemingly dropped.
However, the application has quietly resurfaced with the new Las Tunas Beach location with a new set of neighbors expressing their concerns about such an arrangement.
Currently, the city’s Local Coastal Program does not allow for off-site view corridors, consequently the request would require approval by the California Coastal Commission, as well as the city council, for a LCP amendment.
Morton’s attempt to build a beachfront mansion has a long history, even after the California Coastal Commission issued a permit in 2001.
The mansion kept getting bigger and, by 2004, more numerous special conditions were imposed, including the creation of an on-site public view corridor equal to 20 percent of the width of the property frontage along PCH.
The view corridor requirements imposed by the commission never were acted upon and privacy walls and landscaping exceeded city and commission regulations.
In 2007, the applicant purchased the La Costa property and subsequently dropped plans for that after strenuous objections by neighbors.
Recently, Morton purchased the Las Tunas property and once again proceeded with attempting to obtain an after-the-fact permit for the landscaping and walls and a request for an LCP amendment to permit off-site view corridors instead of the required on-site view corridors.
Alan Block, who represents one of the property owners originally objecting to the La Costa Beach proposal, said Morton has sweetened the pot for municipal officials.
“The applicant is now further proposing to contribute $1 million to the Legacy Park project if the amendments are approved,” he wrote in a letter to city officials objecting to Morton’s latest proposal.
Susan Shaw Noble, who is handling the donations for Legacy Park, said she did not know of any negotiations and was not aware of any promises by Morton to contribute more money to the city’s park fund.
She acknowledged Morton had contributed $25,000 some time ago for acquisition of the park property.
Block also wrote in his 14-page letter that there is no justification for the proposed amendments.
“Further, the approval of the requested amendments would set an extremely negative precedent, which would allow wealthy individuals to transfer the burdens of their proposed developments to off-site neighborhoods regardless of the on-site negative consequences of the same wreaking havoc on public views,” he concluded.