Judge Overrules Coastal Commission on
After-the-Fact Equestrian Center Permits
• Environmental Action Group Says
Panel Should Have Followed Original Staff Recommendation
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,
ruling that 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 the commision 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 that “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 recommendtions, 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 the
courtroom.
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.”
