School District Pushes Malibu High Sports Lights Plans Forward

• Officials Say They Expect Approval of Limited Temporary Program by Coastal Commission

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

At a special meeting on July 1, the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to pass two critical and controversial components of the school district’s attempt to obtain a permit for temporary athletic field lighting at Malibu High School.
The board voted unanimously to endorse a resolution to override the City of Malibu’s authority and go directly to the California Coastal Commission with a request for a Local Coastal Plan amendment to permit temporary athletic field lighting at Malibu High School for the 2009-10 football season.
The board also voted to approve a Mitigated Negative Declaration developed by staff and consultants for the project. Both issues were originally scheduled to be heard at the regular June 25 board of education meeting.
For the past six years, the school’s football program has rented lights, initially for homecoming night, and subsequently for the fall and winter football season. Plans for Measure BB-funded permanent field lighting unveiled in August 2008 led to the revelation that permanent or temporary athletic field lighting violates both the Malibu’s Local Coastal Program and a special condition imposed on the MHS property by the California Coastal Commission as part of the campus’s 2000 Coastal Development Permit.
The MND approved on July 1 was developed by district staff and consultants as part of the process to apply for a LDP amendment to permit temporary lighting for the 2009-10-football season.
A letter from the City of Malibu’s planning department dated June 10 has raised numerous questions and concerns about the Mitigated Negative Declaration prepared by the district for the project, but the resolution passed by the board of education on July 1 is attempting to sidestep the City of Malibu’s Local Coastal Program requirements and take the issue directly to the Coastal Commission, rather than apply first for a local variance.
The move comes on the heels of the recent successful Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy override of the Malibu LCP, which is being challenged legally by the city.
District staff have informed the Malibu Surfside News that the district is confident that the CCC will grant the amendment, which requests permission to use portable lights for a total of eight football practices and eight games. The district has stated that it will contract with a third party vendor to monitor the athletic field and ensure that the program is compliant.
Project supporters are anxious that the Coastal Commission hears the request before the start of the fall football season. Night games are already on the athletic program agenda. Others are concerned that funding will run out before the process is complete.
The temporary lighting project, which is not eligible for Measure BB-funding, is being bankrolled out of rapidly diminishing general funds while the district grapples with a $12 million deficit.
However, some city observers are already saying that the district’s resolution to circumvent the City of Malibu’s authority may force the municipality to take legal action to prevent its local control from being further eroded.