Board Set to Hear Proposed LCP

• County’s Planning Panel Previously Gave OK

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hear the county’s proposed Local Coastal Program for unincorporated areas of Malibu and the rest of the Santa Monica Mountains at its meeting on Oct. 23.

The county’s regional planning commission had previously recommended approval of the LCP.

The county had adopted the Malibu Land Use Plan for the Santa Monica Mountains, which was certified by the California Coastal Commission in 1986. However, an implementation program was never adopted and the coastal agency continues to take responsibility for issuing coastal permits. To achieve a complete LCP, a revised document was drafted, which, if approved by the board and certified by the Coastal Commission, will transfer coastal development permitting authority from the coastal agency to the county.

The plan has had several airings during workshops and hearings with the county’s planning commission. Several redline versions have been reiterated and the document in its draft form was approved by the planning commission in March.

The board will hold its own hearing or hearings and take additional testimony. The board may direct the planning staff to make minor changes to the LCP, or, if the board decides that substantial changes concerning issues that were not considered by the planning commission are needed, it would be returned to the planning panel for further discussion, according to county officials.

When the board adopts the LCP, it will be submitted to the Coastal Commission for its review. The coastal panel will hold public hearings and also accept additional testimony. If the Coastal Commission recommends modifications to the LCP, the board will decide whether and how it should be amended to incorporate the coastal panel’s recommendations. If the board makes the changes recommended by the coastal agency, the LCP will be certified and the county will then take on the permitting authority.

The LCP will affect a resident’s ability to keep horses and other animals, impact the ability of homeowners to grow crops on their property, establish development standards for ridgelines and establish a new rural-coastal zone.