View Ordinance Is City’s Priority

• Council Members Detail Objectives for 2008-2009

BY BILL KOENEKER

Responding to an overwhelming vote on the April ballot in favor of municipal action to legislate view protection, the new Malibu City Council last week unanimously agreed to make this its top goal.
Voters, by a 60 percent margin in an advisory measure, recommended that the council approve a view preservation ordinance.
“The people spoke, it should be our number one priority,” said Councilmember Andy Stern.
“I was shocked at the outcome. I thought there would be more opposition,” said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who had asked to have the council put the measure on the ballot. “They have spoken very clearly. I support this as a top priority. The 63 percent approval is pretty overwhelming.”
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said she believed drafting the measure would be a long process.
Planning and building department head Vic Peterson agreed about the timeline. “There will be nothing easy about the view ordinance. Please do not call it a tree ordinance. Based on the experience of an ordinance [for the Malibu Country Estates], we thought it would be easy. That we could use the existing ordinance of another city, but it took two- and-half years. There was a lot of disagreement [about implementation]. This will not be an easy process. We will have to [comply] with California Environmental Quality Act. It will cost money,” he said.
Peterson told council members the staff’s view of what might work is crafting a citywide ordinance—his reference to MCE is about a view protection law that was created last year solely for that neighborhood—that would be successful by planners devising overlay districts for the various neighborhoods. “The issues are going to be different. If we go to different [neighborhoods] we can do that, but it won’t happen in 100 days,” Peterson added.
Other council members agreed about view protection having top billing after there was a discussion about other issues and where they would be placed on the council’s list of goals and objectives for the upcoming year.
Members also discussed where to rank Civic Center planning. The mayor is adamant about the municipality developing a plan for the Civic Center.
Council members discussed whether it would have to be a specific plan because of the time and requirements. They agreed upon some kind of planning device other than a specific plan after the mayor and other officials approach Civic Center property owners about what they see for the future.
Other priorities include developing objectives leading to approval for grey water usage for household use, especially landscape irrigation. Members also agreed to keep on the top ten list developing green building standards.
Councilmember Jefferson Wagner said the city needs to work on a gray water ordinance.
Councilmember John Sibert, talking about green building standards, said the city needs to get folks to deal with the technologies, but not necessarily to dictate to them. “So we don’t tell them how to do it, we tell them what outcome we want. Everybody else is writing prescriptions,” he said.
The council also wants to keep as a top goal a successful approach to curbing motorcycle noise.
Former Councilmember Ken Kearsley and Dennis Torres talked about a new and different approach taken by other cities and states.
Torres said the noise is caused by custom mufflers installed by bikers who take off the manufacturer’s muffler and how that could be stopped.
He explained that some governments have crafted a law that has withstood two challenges to the Supreme Court. “Manufactures must put an EPA stamp on the bikes’ mufflers. The local law requires that the EPA stamp must be on the muffler. You do not have to measure noise. The word will get out. If no stamp, then stay out of Malibu. The previous efforts by Malibu have failed. There were 70 percent of the citations that were rejected by the court. Just cross off Denver’s name [on the law] and put in Malibu’s,” he added.
Council members seemed encouraged by the information and agreed to put motorcycle noise abatement on the list.
In other action, the council agreed to direct the city’s lobbyist to work on convincing the state Department of Transportation to stripe Pacific Coast Highway from Trancas Canyon Road westward for a bike lane, directed staff to utilize funds raised at Malipalooza for the playground at Bluffs Park and endorsed the 1Sky Mother’s Day event by proposing to create a mural about the need to promote climate change.