Coastal Commission Reduces Proposed Malibu Development

The California Coastal Commission adopted a land-use plan for Malibu on Thursday that halves the amount of development that Los Angeles County officials have wanted to permit there.

At the same time, a carefully crafted compromise between county planners and commission staff collapsed, leading commission Executive Director Michael Fischer to predict that agreement has been pushed “from months away to years away.”

The county Board of Supervisors must reach agreement with the Coastal Commission before the land-use plan can take effect.

‘Prevent All Growth’

After more than two years of public hearings, revision and backstage negotiations, county planners had been ready to recommend the staff proposal to the Board of Supervisors. Coastal commissioners changed the staff plan, however, incorporating many technical changes proposed by the Malibu Township Council, a civic group.

County Planning Director Norman Murdoch called the new changes “unacceptable” and said they “prevent all growth of any kind whatsoever in Malibu.”

Agreement would have meant that the county could have regained full authority over construction in Malibu. About 20,000 people live there in about 8,000 dwelling units.

Major elements of the plan adopted by the commission Thursday:

- Reducing the county’s proposed maximum of 12,095 new residential units (including 795 at Pepperdine University) to 6,000.

- Imposing a cap of 2,110 new residential units in Malibu until Pacific Coast Highway is improved to handle additional traffic and deleting Trancas Canyon from the areas proposed by the county as commercial centers.

- Focusing new construction on the other two major centers suggested by the county: the Malibu Civic Center-Pepperdine area and the Point Dume-Paradise Cove area.