Citizen Task Force to Tackle View Law
• Council to Select from Applicants
for 12-Person Panel
The Malibu City Council, by unanimous vote
with Councilmember John Sibert absent, agreed this
week to form a view preservation task force composed of 12
members, with each council member appointing two members, and
the whole council tapping two more at-large members—one
from the east end of the community and the other from the
west end of town.
In April, the voters were asked to give
their input on whether the city should undertake a measure and
the electorate overwhelmingly advised the council they wanted
to see a law on the books.
Some of those citizens came to council
chambers to either warn the council of the pitfalls of such a
committee, volunteer their services, or inform members of what
the panel needed to do.
Marilyn Santman said she did not want to
see the task force slow down the process of enacting a new law.
“I am afraid it will get bogged down. We need a
expediter to help the committee,” she said.
Leon Cooper explained that the City of
Palos Verdes currently has a law on the books that has
withstood the test of time and the courts, and might be a model
for a Malibu ordinance.
Lou Lamont, head of the Big Rock Homeowners
Association, told the council it must craft a law that
takes into account all of the differences in geography of each
neighborhood. “The important issues in Big Rock
are different than La Costa, which is different than
Carbon Mesa,” he said.
Sam Hall Kaplan, reminding the council of
the overwhelming vote, said, “This is not simply a
landscaping issue. It is also a construction issue. Also it is
a fire issue. It is for the protection of properties
and should be expedited.”
The council then discussed how many should
be on the committee, how the appointments would be made, how
folks could apply and if the panel should have another
name.
The council briefly talked about how to
reach out to the community for applicants, including contacting
all of the homeowners associations. But shied away from that
when they were told the staff could come back in September
after getting all of the information and mailing it out to the
HOAs.
“If the motion is accepted, I want
this back for our next meeting to make our appointments,”
said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky.
After the April vote, council members made
view preservation their top priority and decided to form the
blue ribbon panel to get the input of as many individuals as
possible in the early formative stages of such a law.
Municipal officials are apparently using
the Malibu County Estates process as a guide. After the city
declared its intention to creating an ordinance for the
neighborhood, city staff and the MCE homeowners
association worked closely to craft a measure.
However, in the final days of passage and
subsequent enactment critics came forward with numerous
objections to how the law was written.
To head that off, city planners suggested
that a blue ribbon committee could be very helpful in
collecting and evaluating community concerns on a citywide law.
The council concurred.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich had placed on the
agenda a measure to form a blue ribbon committee to discuss
potential uses of property at Point Dume that city officials
are contemplating acquiring that was discussed later in the
evening. It would have the same structure as the view
panel.
The city is considering the purchase of the
property for a potential site for a city hall, senior center,
library, teen center or ball fields.
Several residents from Bonsall Drive, which
is downslope of the 10-acre property under discussion, council
the property was inappropriate for institutional or
recreational use since it is so close to a residential
neighborhood. The property is currently zoned rural
residential. Most of the speakers said their property lines
abut the subject property.
The announcement that the city might
acquire the acreage currently operated as a plant nursery
located north of the intersection of Heathercliff Road and
Pacific Coast Highway has already generated considerable
controversy.
Critics contend the rural nature of the
property is not conducive to municipal or institutional uses,
and that the mayor’s efforts are detracting from the
proposed plans for other city projects.
However, supporters, including the Boys and
Girls Club, suggest the site would be ideal for a teen center
or a satellite library.
The financial realities suggest a library
or city hall might be more feasible since there is money
already set aside for those two uses in the city coffers, and
both uses come with an annual revenue stream.
