County Supervisors Air Issues at Hearing on Proposed LCP for Santa Monica Mountains

• Session Is Continued for Another Week to Hear More Testimony

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took up consideration of the proposed Local Coastal Program for unincorporated areas of Malibu and the rest of the Santa Monica Mountains at its meeting this week on Tuesday.

The board took no action, but rather listened to a staff report on the document, heard public testimony and continued the matter until Oct. 30 when it is expected the supervisors will take action.

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

Eleventh hour opposition came from the civic group, Citizens for a Better LCP, which objected to what it called the “commercialization of horse boarding” in the Santa Monicas that they contend would be allowed under the LCP.

“The proposed LCP actively encourages landowners to keep eight horses per acre. This is an unacceptably high number. Areas where livestock are maintained are typically denuded of all vegetation,” said Jacky de Haviland, who is the president of the group, and acknowledged during an interview that she and others found out much later about the LCP process after the planning commission recommended approval.

“We just did not know about it,” responded de Haviland, who said she and her group had spearheaded an effort to let other environmental groups know about what she considers the objectionable aspects of what she calls “backyard boarding.”

“I am not against equestrian use in the mountains. But this commercial use threatens the ecosystem,” she added.

De Haviland said she believed the ads placed in local media last week might have had an impact on county officials.

Equestrians early on had wanted the county to incorporate and consider in its policies in the LCP the historic significance of equestrian uses in the local mountain range.

Members of Citizens for a Better LCP urged the board to eliminate language that allows the boarding of horses not specifically owned by the landowner.

The group insisted they are not a one-issue organization and also take exception to what they called the “creeping commercialization” that they say is encouraged by the LCP in the form of visitor-serving uses.

“ I can’t understand how having a 40-room bed and breakfast in the Santa Monica Mountains helps protect the mountains. It will bring more traffic, more people and more pollution,” de Haviland said.

The board, before it met, agreed to continue the matter to allow those who could not attend this week due to the area wildfires to testify at the later date.

After the hearing is closed, supervisors can choose to 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, the document could be returned to the panel for further discussion, according to county officials.

When the board adopts the LCP, it will be submitted to the California Coastal Commission for its review. The coastal panel will hold a public hearing and also accept additional testimony.

If the commission recommends modifications to the LCP, the supervisors 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 state agency, the LCP will be certified and the county will then take on the permitting authority.