Canyon Road Leads to Headaches : Development: Builder goes ahead with paving despite refusal of a Coastal Commission permit. Then he asks the panel to approve the completed road. It did not.

When real estate developer Charles Tarrats began paving a twisting, 2 1/2-mile road in Malibu’s pristine upper Ramirez Canyon without a permit last May, the state Coastal Commission ordered him to stop.

He did--for two days.

Then the Coastal Commission turned down his request for an emergency permit. Regardless, Tarrats’ workmen returned to finish the road that area environmentalists scorned as an “abomination” on the Santa Monica Mountains landscape.

Whatever shortcomings critics find in Tarrats, they cannot fault him for a lack of tenacity.

On Thursday, a lawyer for the Malibu real estate broker asked the Coastal Commission for after-the-fact approval of the same road-paving project that state law enforcement officials have accused Tarrats and his partners of carrying out illegally.

By a unanimous vote, the 12-member panel denied the request.

However, few of the dozen people who testified at the Coastal Commission’s meeting in opposition to Tarrats’ request were ready to celebrate.

“Hey, the road’s still there, the damage has been done,” resident Bill Brackenridge said. “It won’t be time to bring out the champagne until they rip that road completely out.”

He and others complain that the asphalt road, which winds as high as 2,000 feet into the hills between Kanan Dume Road and Latigo Canyon Road, threatens to speed development in the largely unspoiled area overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

They insist that the road is poorly built and dangerous, and that its construction resulted in the unlawful destruction of several plant and animal habitats.

“It’s a tragedy waiting to happen,” area resident Matt Clark said. “No engineering went into it. It’s only a matter of time before there is a severe traffic accident up there. And the way it was built, it won’t be long before it starts to fall apart.”

What becomes of the unpopular roadway may depend on the outcome of a lawsuit the state attorney general’s office filed against more than 40 Malibu property owners, headed by Tarrats, who allegedly pooled their money to pave it. The state is asking for millions of dollars in damages.

At Thursday’s hearing, attorney Joseph Gughemetti offered what may be a preview of the argument that Tarrats and the others may present if, and when, the lawsuit--filed last July in Los Angeles Superior Court--comes to trial.

Gughemetti said Tarrats ignored the stop-work papers served on him last May and continued paving what had been two contiguous roads in the belief that he was not violating any laws.

“My client’s paving was predicated on already having a county permit to do the work. He was not aware that Coastal Commission approval was needed,” Gughemetti said.

However, the argument did not impress many of the commissioners.

“These applications have been around for years. . . . The real estate brokers (who do business within the five-mile coastal zone) know about the Coastal Act,” Commissioner Dorill Wright said.

Through a spokesman, Tarrats declined to be interviewed, referring questions to Gughemetti. Although he attended the hearing, Tarrats did not testify. He sat behind his lawyer, clutching a Bible during much of the three-hour session.

In an interview last year, he denied that the 20-foot-wide road was built to speed development in the area, saying that the property owners who contributed to the project just wanted to improve access to their homes.

Nonetheless, opponents say he has tried to capitalize on the new road access. The road was featured in an advertisement placed by Tarrats’ company last summer in an edition of the Malibu Homes directory, which listed a 24-acre property in upper Ramirez Canyon.

The ad said: “A beautiful private park-like setting with close proximity to Pacific Coast Highway and easy access off a newly paved road. . . . There is room for all amenities. $795,000.”

Yet, Gughemetti insisted that his client has never been interested in trying to develop the property, saying that Tarrats is only interested in building a home on the site.