SMMC Says Sweetwater Mesa Plans Worst in Area’s History

• Five-Home Subdivision Challenged

BY BILL KOENEKER 

Describing itself as the “principle state planning agency for the Santa Monica Mountains,” the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy weighed in on a proposed subdivision on acreage high in the hills above Sweetwater Mesa.

At its meeting last week, the SMMC board authorized a comment letter to the California Coastal Commission about the proposed five-home subdivision, which is still wending its way through the approval process.

“Unfortunately it is impossible to construct the five homes strung over a mile of ridgeline and 7800 feet of water main without resulting in unavoidable significant adverse visual and ecological impacts.

The only combination of homes that could be constructed without such unavoidable significant adverse impacts is application 4-07-067 (Lunch) as proposed and application 4-07-068 (Vera) if the house is removed from the ridgeline. These homes would need to be on [water] wells,” the letter states.

The Conservancy indicated the issue is important, given “the involved parcels are an integral part of a public viewshed with statewide significance that is within reach of over 10 million Los Angeles metropolitan area residents and thousands of tourists.”

SMMC planners note that part of the road for at least three of the homes is “wholly inconsistent with many key sections of the Coastal Act.”

The state agency is asking the coastal panel into require an independent investigation on the construction feasibility of the entire one-mile-long section of road proposed to connect the five subject houses from the Malibu city line.

“The commission staff has not received adequate information on the feasibility of the access road proposed to reach the [three lots] as it is depicted,” the letter goes on to state.

Project proponents, during many different hearings at the city level repeatedly argued they were constrained by where and how the access road is built because of the legal easement that was worked out in court during litigation.

Conservancy planners, who said they consulted with a grading expert, indicate they have reason to believe that the grading impacts from the road “are far more extensive than represented.”

“For example, the excavation behind the retaining walls for the proposed 500-foot-long and 50-foot high cut slopes does not appear to be represented in the earthwork calculations,” the letter notes.

The Conservancy cites other examples suggesting the true grading footprint is still actually unknown and that some places on the road calling for fill should really be excavated and re-compacted.

 “We believe that even a brief consultation with Los Angeles County geologists would confirm this suspicion,” the letter states.

The letter goes on to cite problems, such as how all five projects would impact Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas, would cause major alterations to natural landforms and would result in a significant diminution of public viewsheds.

“All five projects are located deep into a wildland fire zone and do not minimize risk to life and property in an area of high fire hazard.” the letter states.

The SMMC missive urges the commission to consider the linkages of the projects even if for legal reasons they cannot be considered as one project.

“Nobody is fooled by the separation of the projects. Only archaic protections of LLLPs prevent this project from being addressed under the California Environmental Quality Act as a single project. The applicant derives numerous advantages from this CEQA immunity and suffers no pitfalls. That is something to consider when weighing the most damaging five-unit proposal in the history of the Santa Monica Mountains. Beautiful LEED certified homes do not balance out a continuous chain of average 1800-foot-long driveways into a core habitat of the Coastal Zone portion of the Santa Monica Mountains,” the letter concludes.