Council Agrees that Blufftop Mansion and Access Road Need Enviro Impact Report

• Big Rock Residents Win Appeal

BY BILL KOENEKER

In what appeared to be a victory for Big Rock residents who live on Seaboard Drive, the Malibu City Council, with Councilmember Sharon Barovsky absent, voted this week that an area blufftop mansion and its long and winding access road require an Environmental Impact Report.
The action was taken after both the applicant and a neighbor appealed the planning commission’s decision approving the plans, but putting restrictions on the basement.
The planning panel had approved the two-story, 10,517-square-foot, single-family home with pool and tennis court that required several variances for the winding mountain driveway, but had put restriction on the plans for the basement. The applicant, the Breitman family, was appealing those restrictions and neighbor Al Broussard was appealing the approvals for the home and driveway.
Broussard and many of his neighbors, including Big Rock resident Lou La Monte, argued the there were many unanswered questions that had not been addressed by the Initial Study.
“It appears to be the development of four houses. It should require an EIR,” said La Monte, who said he was speaking on behalf of the Big Rock Homeowners Association. “They overwhelmingly oppose this project.”
Big Rock residents and their attorney told the council how there might be significant effects that were not at all studied.
They also discussed how the project was actually a small four-lot subdivision needing an access road. They accused the applicant of “piecemealing” development in order to avoid the cost and further scrutiny of an EIR.
The applicant and city planner insisted what was before the council was one house, not four, but did acknowledge there were three other buildable lots.
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich started council deliberations by saying she was leaning towards an EIR because “we are looking at four homes.”
Councilmember Jefferson Wagner said there was no information about how much stormwater flow and drainage was involved after creating non-permeable surfaces because of the long road and the housing pads. “We probably do need an EIR,” he said.
Councilmember John Sibert asked City Attorney Christi Hogin what is required to trigger an EIR. However, the answer did not seem to satisfy Sibert since Hogin talked more about needing to evaluate evidence, evaluating if there is a fair argument for significant impacts and the threshold significance.
“It is a judgment call,” Sibert concluded.
Mayor Andy Stern wanted to hear how and if the impacts of the any new homes would be on the assessment district in the slide areas of Big Rock and how construction traffic would be addressed.
Sibert said he was troubled by the 20-foot wide road which would not really be required for one house. “It did not need to be a 20-foot wide road even if it was two houses,” he said. “It is an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area on both sides of the road. I have a real difficulty with that, whether it is one house or it is four houses.”
The council discussed the costs of an EIR, if the applicant would be willing to condition approval for promising to built only one house on the four lots and how much surface was involved in a concrete 20-foot-wide road.
The planning staff kept trying to assure the council that most of their concerns were addressed by the standard conditions imposed upon applicants in the approval process. However, most of the council members were not buying.
As a test, the council moved the staff recommended motion of denying both appeals, but that lost on a 4-0 vote.
It was Wagner, who repeated, “This needs an EIR.” Sibert agreed. “We should require an EIR,” he added.
Hogin said the council would have to voice the issues they wanted addressed. The council, on a 4-0 vote, agreed to require an EIR that studied the impacts of the 20-foot- wide road, or an alterative, the impacts of construction since plans call for a concrete and steel caisson road, and drainage issues.