More Protection for Butterfly Habitat Sought : Environment: Coastal Commission agrees to take five feet off the height of a house to be built near a sanctuary for Monarchs. Environmentalists say the concession doesn’t go far enough.

Real estate ads had hailed the two-acre property in Malibu’s Encinal Canyon as offering a stunning ocean view--and more: Part of the acreage was a habitat for the Monarch butterfly.

So when a new owner bought the property last year with plans to tear down its house and tennis court and build three expensive homes, butterfly enthusiasts were upset that the developer wanted to chop down some of the very trees that provide a winter home to an estimated 20,000 Monarchs.

Despite the opposition of butterfly enthusiasts, last November the state Coastal Commission allowed several trees to be removed after a lawyer for owner Moses Lerner testified that they were diseased.

Chagrined butterfly enthusiasts, saying the property represents one of the few Monarch habitats left on the Pacific Coast, were back before the state panel again this week, asking for the habitat’s protection.

In line with a recommendation from its staff, the commission voted 7 to 5 Tuesday to trim five feet from the height of one of the houses, to reduce the shade that would be cast on the remaining trees.

The butterfly’s advocates regarded the height reduction as a small concession. “I don’t think what they did will make any difference in saving the habitat from destruction,” said Sarah Dixon, for example.

Environmentalists say the house, to be built within 20 feet of a group of eucalyptus trees in which the Monarchs roost, may destroy the habitat by lowering the temperature enough so that the butterflies will no longer go there.

The spot, next to expensive homes overlooking the ocean above Broad Beach, is one of three havens in the Malibu area for the migrating Monarchs, who come from as far away as Colorado each winter to roost in a few well-established sanctuaries near the California coast and in Baja California.

The Monarch is widely admired for its colorful burnt-orange and black wings, and local laws protect them in a few places, such as Santa Barbara County and the city of Pacific Grove.

The Entomological Society of America has even proposed that the Monarch be designated the national insect.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Walter Sakai, a Santa Monica College biology professor, alluding to the butterfly’s popularity, suggested: “In a year or two, the Monarch may be our national insect, and it may not reflect well on the Coastal Commission not to act now to protect it.”

Sakai, who said he would prefer to see nothing built close to the trees, asked the commissioners to “err on the side of the butterfly” in at least reducing the proposed height.

On the other hand, Patrick Wells, an Occidental College biologist and a consultant for the developer, disputed Sakai’s claim that to allow the house to be built next to the trees would threaten the butterflies.

“My professional answer to that question is no,” he said.

During an hourlong discussion that sometimes seemed more in keeping with a biology class than a Coastal Commission hearing, a majority of panel members supported a motion by Commissioner Madelyn Glickfeld, who lives in Malibu, to reduce the building’s height.

However, several commissioners expressed concern about where to draw the line in protecting animal life.

“We get one doctor of something or other that tells us one thing. And another (expert) who tells us something entirely different,” said Commissioner Donald McInnis, who voted against the height restriction. “In the end, each of us has to make his own judgment.”

DEVELOPMENT VS. THE MONARCH

* The Monarch is one of about 200 species of the Danainae subfamily, or the Milkweed Butterflies.

* Adults are large. The Monarch, which often soars or glides between wing flaps, is the most strongly migratory butterfly in the world.

* They habitat mostly in open places, especially moist valley bottoms. Tree provide important resting sites for overwintering.

Source: James A. Scott’s “The Butterflies of North America.”