Enviro and Surf Organizations Appeal Legacy Park Approvals

• Move Could Be Precursor to Legal Action against City

BY BILL KOENEKER

To no one’s surprise, a coalition of environmental and surfing groups is appealing the planning commission’s decision approving the permits and entitlements for Legacy Park.
The Santa Monica Baykeeper, Heal the Bay, the Malibu Surfing Association, and Surfrider Foundation have jointly filed an appeal of the approval by the planning commission for plans to build a detention pond or basin for stormwater storage, restoration of coastal habitat and public park.
The groups are asking the city council to overturn the planning panel’s approvals.
The specter of delay or litigation was so strong at the planning commission meeting, one commissioner unsuccessfully put forward a motion to delay approval for a year because of the concerns expressed by the enviro groups and the potential for lawsuits.
In a statement issued this week, Baykeeper said the project as designed “will not meet water quality standards and does not address Malibu’s most serious water quality issue, disposal and treatment of sewage from commercial developments in the Civic Center area.”
The 100-plus pages of submittals and exhibits turned over to the city by the Baykeeper including material from a San Francisco-based attorney hired by the group has led some to think the environmental organizations are simply completing administerial requirements before they sue Malibu. The Baykeeper currently has two other lawsuits pending against the city in the courts.
“Legacy Park was originally intended to provide a desperately needed comprehensive solution to the chronic water quality problems of Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach,” said Tom Ford, executive director of the Baykeeper.
The Legacy Park project originally included a plan to address wastewater effluent and sewage in the Civic Center area. “The wastewater treatment system element of the project was removed a few weeks ago, almost six months after the public comment period closed,” the press release mistakenly goes on to state.
However, the Malibu Surfside News revealed over a year ago the city was not moving forward with the wastewater component, but only the stormwater element.
An appellant letter sent to the city states over a dozen objections to both the approvals and conditions granted by the planning panel last month.
Items the enviro groups object to include the proposed detention pond, which they contend has not been adequately analyzed for adverse public health impacts; that the installation of an irrigation system on the Legacy Park site has not been adequately analyzed for adverse hydrology and groundwater impacts; and the planned grading of 113,000 cubic yards has not been analyzed geotechnically. The review document “impermissibly defers analysis of project impacts and mitigation until after project approval.”
Other plans, such as habitat restoration for vernal pools, details about landscaping, a water quality mitigation plan, erosion control plan and vegetation removal, also “impermissibly defer analysis of project impacts and mitigation.”
In a 15-page appeal summary, the appellants take aim at the Legacy Park Environmental Impact Report, indicating there are numerous faults and inadequacies contained in the document.
The appeal charges that the EIR impermissibly piecemeals the Legacy Park project to avoid the required California Environmental Quality Act analysis, and that the EIR fails to analyze significant environmental impacts from the project. It also contends the revised Final EIR fails to adequately analyze cumulative hydrology impacts.
The appellants also extensively cite how the EIR fails to respond to specific comments.
“The Legacy Park EIR falls significantly short of the requirements of CEQA. Consequently, the planning commission’s resolution No. 09-11 certifying the EIR violates CEQA,” wrote the appellants in their conclusion.