CCC Appeals Off-Site View Corridor

• Approval Is Challenged as a Major Procedural Error

BY BILL KOENEKER

The California Coastal Commission is filing an appeal of Malibu’s approval of Peter Morton’s request for a complicated off-site view corridor proposal that requires a Local Coastal Program amendment. Simultaneously, Morton promised a $1 million donation for Legacy Park.
Coastal Commissioners Sara Wan and Mary Shallenberger are listed as the appellants.
The complex scheme involves allowing an after-the-fact permit at Morton’s Carbon Beach mansion, while calling for the demolition of a single-family residence on Big Rock Beach to create an off-site view corridor as mitigation for obstructing public views.
The city conditioned the permit to not become effective until the applicant obtained an LCPA from the Coastal Commission.
“To approve a [permit] concurrently with an associated LCP amendment, as the city has done in this case, is inconsistent with the certified Local Coastal Program. The required findings cannot be made,” the appeal letter states.
The appellants indicate that when the Malibu planning commission approved the LCPA, it was difficult to predict if the LCPA would be approved or approved with modifications by the Coastal Commission. “Until such time as the LCP amendment is certified, it is not possible to determine if the project will be consistent with the LCP, as amended,” the appeal letter goes on the state.
The proposal by Morton, the co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe empire, initially ran into opposition from neighbors, when he proposed the view corridor be placed along La Costa Beach.
When he moved the proposal to Big Rock Beach after a failed attempt at Las Flores Beach and sweetened the deal with a pledge of $1 million, city officials approved the application, once assured that no neighbors protested.
The matter was then approved by the city council, as the proposed LCPA must be approved by the city council as well as the Coastal Commission.