Judge Overrules Coastal Commission on After-the-Fact Equestrian Center Permits

• Environmental Action Group Says Panel Should Have Followed Original Staff Recommendation

BY ANNE SOBLE

The environmental advocacy and legal action group, Coastal Law Enforcement Action Network, or CLEAN, has reopened a battle that raged for decades over whether a commercial equestrian center’s allegedly illegally-expanded facilities in the Santa Monica Mountains are polluting the area’s groundwater.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant granted CLEAN’s petition for a writ of mandate in the case of CLEAN v. California Coastal Commission last week, ruling the commission did not base its decision on “substantial evidence” when it approved a controversial after-the-fact development permit to allow Malibu Valley Farms to continue its show and boarding operations.
CLEAN argued that the permit, granted in July 2007, allowed the equestrian center’s horse waste—manure and urine—to “continue polluting” a blue-line stream that drains into Malibu Creek. The equestrian facility, one of the largest in the Santa Monicas, is located on Mulholland Highway off Kanan Road.
The commission’s 7-5 decision overrode the CCC staff’s initial recommendation. The panel’s decision, which was sharply criticized by local environmental groups, was attributed to pressure on commission members by a sizable turnout from the equestrian and livestock community.
Many of the horse owners and others who showed up, especially those with smaller properties, were concerned that a ruling against Brian Boudreau, the owner of MVF, might be a prelude to a major Los Angeles County crackdown on horse and other livestock ownership in Malibu and the rest of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Among the groups that soundly criticized the commission action in addition to CLEAN, were the Sierra Club, Heal the Bay, Save Open Space and Santa Monica Baykeeper. The commission’s action caught many of the groups off guard as an enforcement order had been imposed on MVF by the panel in November 2006 for what were perceived as essentially the same issues. At that time, the center was ordered to remove allegedly illegal structures and contain pollution.
A legal challenge was expected, and CLEAN, a biodiversity project of the International Humanities Center, took it on.
Judge Chalfant ordered the revocation of the CCC permit and said the commission must undertake further studies into the extent of water pollution from horse waste that enters the waterways that travel to the coast.
CLEAN said Chalfant’s 12-page decision focused on the County of Los Angeles Environmental Review Board approval of a different development than the one considered by the CCC, and the commission using that decision to determine that the traditional 100-foot setback from the stream, designated an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area, would not be required under the Coastal Act.
Marcia Hanscom, the managing director of CLEAN, said, “The 100-foot setback to streams and other environmentally sensitive habitat areas in the Santa Monica Mountains is critically important ecologically because of the rarity of these habitats in Southern California. We are grateful that Judge Chalfant is sending the permit for this illegal development back to the Coastal Commission for compliance with the Coastal Act.”
Hanscom said, “CLEAN will be requesting that the Coastal Commission return the review of the project back to the County of Los Angeles and its Environmental Review Board, as well as its Regional Planning Department, to insure compliance with the law.”
David Weinsoff, the lead attorney for CLEAN on the lawsuit, added, “We believe the commission staff, in their original report, understood perfectly the requirements of the Coastal Act. Any future permitting action in this matter should reflect the original staff recommendations, which would ensure legal and environmental protection for Stokes Creek and its riparian habitat.”
“We will also request that the Coastal Commission take action to begin enforcement under the existing cease and desist order requiring Malibu Valley Farms to remove illegal development that has polluted the Santa Monica Mountains and its streams for far too long,” Weinsoff added.
However, the attorney on the matter for Malibu Valley Farms, Fred Gaines, said CLEAN is portraying “the judge’s ruling as more than it is.”
Gaines told the Malibu Surfside News that the tentative ruling, which his client will seek to have corrected, is limited to the issue of Coastal Comission over-reliance on the Los Angeles County ERB decision.
On all of the other issues raised by CLEAN, the attorney said that MVF successfully “made its case in court.”
Gaines said Judge Chalfant “ruled for Malibu Valley Farms on whether equestrian uses are appropriate and legal in this location [and] found no evidence of pollution...including that the horse stream crossings are legal.”