Carbon Homeowner Seeks View Corridor
• Applies for OK to Demolish House on
Las Tunas Beach
A highly controversial proposal by the
cofounder of the Hard Rock Cafe empire, Peter
Morton, who has built a mansion on Carbon Beach, to
create a view corridor by demolishing a house on Las
Tunas Beach has some beachfront neighbors up in arms.
The Malibu Planning Commission was
asked to weigh in on the matter at its meeting this week after
the Malibu Surfside News went to press.
Morton is seeking a demolition permit for a
single-family home 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 a similar permit for a beachfront home on La
Costa Beach, which 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 and a new set
of neighbors expressing concerns about the arrangement.
Currently, the city’s Local Coastal
Program does not allow for offsite view corridors, consequently
the request would require approval by the California
Coastal Commission, as well as the city council, for an
LCP amendment.
Morton’s successful 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 requirement imposed by
the commission never was 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 there after
strenuous objections by the neighbors.
Recently, Morton purchased the Las Tunas
property and proceeded to attempt 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 already
contributed $25,000 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, wrecking havoc on public
views,” he concluded.
