Carbon Beach Homeowner Wants to Transfer
View Corridor Impacts
• Seeks to Demolish House on Las Tunas
Beach to Accomplish Goal
A highly controversial proposal by the
cofounder of the Hard Rock Cafe empire, Peter Morton, the owner
of a mansion on Carbon Beach, to create a view corridor by
demolishing another house on Las Tunas Beach has some
beachfront neighbors up in arms.
The Malibu Planning Commission has been
asked to weigh in on the matter at its meeting next week.
Morton is seeking a demolition permit for a
single-family house located at 19862 Pacific Coast Highway to
create the offsite view corridor.
Several months ago, Morton, through his
permit expediters, the law firm of Latham and Watkins, had
originally sought the same permit for a beachfront home on La
Costa Beach that raised the ire of neighbors there who
immediately hired attorneys and began fighting the request.
Morton, at the time, withdrew his
application and the matter was seemingly dropped.
However, the application has quietly
resurfaced with the new Las Tunas Beach location with a new set
of neighbors expressing their concerns about such an
arrangement.
Currently, the city’s Local Coastal
Program does not allow for off-site view corridors,
consequently the request would require approval by the
California Coastal Commission, as well as the city council, for
a LCP amendment.
Morton’s attempt to build a
beachfront mansion has a long history, even after the
California Coastal Commission issued a permit in 2001.
The mansion kept getting bigger and, by
2004, more numerous special conditions were imposed, including
the creation of an on-site public view corridor equal to 20
percent of the width of the property frontage along PCH.
The view corridor requirements imposed by
the commission never were acted upon and privacy walls and
landscaping exceeded city and commission regulations.
In 2007, the applicant purchased the La
Costa property and subsequently dropped plans for that after
strenuous objections by neighbors.
Recently, Morton purchased the Las Tunas
property and once again proceeded with attempting to obtain an
after-the-fact permit for the landscaping and walls and a
request for an LCP amendment to permit off-site view corridors
instead of the required on-site view corridors.
Alan Block, who represents one of the
property owners originally objecting to the La Costa Beach
proposal, said Morton has sweetened the pot for municipal
officials.
“The applicant is now further
proposing to contribute $1 million to the Legacy Park project
if the amendments are approved,” he wrote in a letter to
city officials objecting to Morton’s latest proposal.
Susan Shaw Noble, who is handling the
donations for Legacy Park, said she did not know of any
negotiations and was not aware of any promises by Morton to
contribute more money to the city’s park fund.
She acknowledged Morton had contributed
$25,000 some time ago for acquisition of the park property.
Block also wrote in his 14-page letter that
there is no justification for the proposed amendments.
“Further, the approval of the
requested amendments would set an extremely negative precedent,
which would allow wealthy individuals to transfer the burdens
of their proposed developments to off-site neighborhoods
regardless of the on-site negative consequences of the same
wreaking havoc on public views,” he concluded.
