View Ordinance Is City’s Priority
• Council Members Detail Objectives
for 2008-2009
Responding to an overwhelming vote on the
April ballot in favor of municipal action to legislate
view protection, the new Malibu City Council last week
unanimously agreed to make this its top goal.
Voters, by a 60 percent margin in an
advisory measure, recommended that the council approve a view
preservation ordinance.
“The people spoke, it should be our
number one priority,” said Councilmember Andy Stern.
“I was shocked at the outcome. I
thought there would be more opposition,” said
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who had asked to have the
council put the measure on the ballot. “They have spoken
very clearly. I support this as a top priority. The 63 percent
approval is pretty overwhelming.”
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said she believed
drafting the measure would be a long process.
Planning and building department head Vic
Peterson agreed about the timeline. “There will be
nothing easy about the view ordinance. Please do not call it a
tree ordinance. Based on the experience of an ordinance [for
the Malibu Country Estates], we thought it would be easy. That
we could use the existing ordinance of another city, but it
took two- and-half years. There was a lot of disagreement
[about implementation]. This will not be an easy process. We
will have to [comply] with California Environmental
Quality Act. It will cost money,” he said.
Peterson told council members the
staff’s view of what might work is crafting a citywide
ordinance—his reference to MCE is about a view protection
law that was created last year solely for that
neighborhood—that would be successful by planners
devising overlay districts for the various neighborhoods.
“The issues are going to be different. If we go to
different [neighborhoods] we can do that, but it won’t
happen in 100 days,” Peterson added.
Other council members agreed about view
protection having top billing after there was a discussion
about other issues and where they would be placed on the
council’s list of goals and objectives for the upcoming
year.
Members also discussed where to rank Civic
Center planning. The mayor is adamant about the
municipality developing a plan for the Civic Center.
Council members discussed whether it would
have to be a specific plan because of the time and
requirements. They agreed upon some kind of planning device
other than a specific plan after the mayor and other officials
approach Civic Center property owners about what they see for
the future.
Other priorities include
developing objectives leading to approval for
grey water usage for household use, especially landscape
irrigation. Members also agreed to keep on the top ten list
developing green building standards.
Councilmember Jefferson Wagner said
the city needs to work on a gray water ordinance.
Councilmember John Sibert, talking about
green building standards, said the city needs to get folks to
deal with the technologies, but not necessarily to dictate to
them. “So we don’t tell them how to do it, we tell
them what outcome we want. Everybody else is writing
prescriptions,” he said.
The council also wants to keep as a top
goal a successful approach to curbing motorcycle noise.
Former Councilmember Ken Kearsley and
Dennis Torres talked about a new and different approach taken
by other cities and states.
Torres said the noise is caused by custom
mufflers installed by bikers who take off the
manufacturer’s muffler and how that could be stopped.
He explained that some governments have
crafted a law that has withstood two challenges to the Supreme
Court. “Manufactures must put an EPA stamp on the
bikes’ mufflers. The local law requires that the EPA
stamp must be on the muffler. You do not have to measure noise.
The word will get out. If no stamp, then stay out of Malibu.
The previous efforts by Malibu have failed. There were 70
percent of the citations that were rejected by the court. Just
cross off Denver’s name [on the law] and put in
Malibu’s,” he added.
Council members seemed encouraged by the
information and agreed to put motorcycle noise abatement on the
list.
In other action, the council agreed to
direct the city’s lobbyist to work on convincing the
state Department of Transportation to stripe Pacific Coast
Highway from Trancas Canyon Road westward for a bike lane,
directed staff to utilize funds raised at Malipalooza for the
playground at Bluffs Park and endorsed the 1Sky Mother’s
Day event by proposing to create a mural about the need to
promote climate change.
