Planning Panel to Consider High School Field Lighting

• Critics Fear Limits Won’t Be Binding

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

On Jan. 19, the City of Malibu Planning Commission will consider a plan to permit temporary athletic field lights at Malibu High School that would require a Local Coastal Program amendment, as well as a Zoning Text Amendment and changes to the city’s municipal code.
The plan to provide night lighting for the school’s football program has met with vehement opposition from residents and environmental groups, including the Sierra Club.
Even in its current form, which would limit lighting to a set number of football games and practices at the high school campus, the plan continues to be highly controversial. The staff report includes letters from 35 residents opposing the lights and 16 pages of opposition petition signatures but only two letters in support of the lighting plan, one of which expresses numerous concerns about the current proposal.
The lighting plan first surfaced in August 2008, when the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District unveiled Measure BB improvement plans for the Malibu campus that incorporated artificial turf, concrete bleachers and permanent athletic field lights that could potentially be used more than 200 nights a year.
Research into the permanent lighting plan revealed that a deed restriction prohibiting permanent or temporary field lighting had been imposed on the property in 2000 by the California Coastal Commission. The temporary lighting used by the school for the past seven years was found to be in violation of the campus’s Coastal Development Permit as well as the City of Malibu’s Local Coastal Program and municipal code.
Abandoning the permanent lighting plan in favor of temporary lighting, the board of education passed a resolution exempting the district from the City of Malibu’s municipal code in July 2009. Having circumvented city oversight, the district proceeded to pursued an amendment to the MHS CDP from the Coastal Commission to permit temporary lighting for a maximum of 16 nights. The commission unanimously denied the request.
The district then returned to the City of Malibu to request LCP and zoning text amendments. A revised lighting plan was heard by the Zoning Ordinance Revision and Code Enforcement Subcommittee in December. It will now be discussed by the Planning Commission.
The initial ZTA proposal would have permitted athletic lighting at all institutionally zoned properties in the city. The current request limits prospective lights to the high school and restricts their use to a limited number of football games and practices during the fall and winter months only, excluding other sports activities.
ZORACES heard extensive public comment and made several recommendations, adding that “substantive” enforcement measures be implemented to ensure that the district complies with the regulations and that public notification requirements for a Conditional Use Permit should be based on the contiguous MHS campus boundary.
The CUP is seen as a tool to help enforce the regulations, and would specify the restrictions and the maximum number of nights. The district ould be required to obtain a CUP from the city before the lights could be deployed. However, lighting plan critics question whether the CUP would be binding, because the district considers itself exempt from municipal authority, although acknowledges it is subject to the LCP..
If the Planning Commission recommends the item for approval, the City Council will hold a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend the LCP and City’s Zoning Ordinance. Final approval for the LCP amendment will then rest with the Coastal Commission.
The Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for Jan. 19, 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. The agenda and staff report are available at http://www.ci.malibu.ca.us