Council Opts to Create Its Own View Protection Measure

• Task Force Snub

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Malibu City Council last week unanimously agreed to send the work product of the View Protection Task Force to the council’s own Zoning Ordinance Revisions and Code Enforcement Subcommittee for consideration and recommendations.
The council had charged the task force with vetting the wishes of the voters, which by an overwhelming majority in the last municipal election supported an advisory measure to urge the council to consider a view protection ordinance.
The task force came up with an ordinance modeled after the Rancho Palos Verdes law considered by many to be successful and court tested.
The council decided it would create its own law using the information provided by the task force and offered tips on what they want to see in such a measure.
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said she was concerned about the California Environmental Quality Act procedures.
“We are talking about cutting down forests. We can’t do it in one [document] properly. There is a lot of conflicting testimony,” said Barovsky, who indicated since her father had lived on Point Dume she was very sympathetic to view protection issues.
Barovsky was referring to differing testimony made during public comments that night and the minority report, which is critical of the task force majority’s proposed ordinance.
“I agree with Sharon, but I have overriding concerns,” said Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, who said her concerns were based on some of the information the council had just gotten.
“I don’t want the taxpayers to pay,” she added. “In Rancho Palos Verdes, they have spent $324,000 on their view protection. If we take it up with ZORACES, I want them to consider cost. I’d rather see the money in other programs. Do not emulate the RVP ordinance,” she said.
Conley Ulich also wanted to know how the city would go about determining restoration criteria, since the city has only been incorporated sine 1991.
City Attorney Christi Hogin said the city could establish rules about restoration if it serves a government purpose. “It is an important sticky point. The ordinance would have to explain that,” she added.
Conley Ulich talked about how the city currently has a landscaping plan and how that might fit into any proposed ordinance.
Hogin said that is where some of the frustration has come from. The city has laws to prevent the obstruction of views for new building. But there are some people whose views are being obstructed and they can’t do anything about it since it does not involve any new construction. “That does not seem fair to some people. Some are regulated and some are not,” the city attorney explained. Conley Ulich said she had been led to believe there had not been much public input. She also said another concern of hers is how arbitration is used.
Councilmember John Sibert, who sits on ZORACES, said council members have what they asked for. “We asked the task force for public input. We asked for a minority report. But the ordinance has to be written by the city balancing the views and property rights with fiduciary responsibility. Those are the things we have to do,” he said.
Councilmember Jefferson Wagner, who also sits on the ZORACES panel, said he had been on the council subcommittee since elected, had been helped by previous committee member Conley Ulich, and now had a sense of how to run things. “It is less formal. I don’t have a gavel, but I have a fist,” he quipped.
Earlier in the evening, the council heard from some task force members and critics of the task force majority. Other homeowners had come to urge the council to enact a view protection ordinance.