Coastal Panel Blocks Malibu Home Builder : Development: Property owner is accused of grossly exceeding limits of his grading permit. One commissioner calls it an ‘environmental crime.’

In what environmentalists hailed as a stern message to developers in California’s coastal zone, the state Coastal Commission has revoked the permit of a Malibu developer accused of grading 14 times the amount of earth his permit allowed.

By an 8-3 vote, the state panel Wednesday night revoked the permit of developer Sheldon Gordon to build four luxury homes on 184 acres he owns in Malibu’s exclusive Sweetwater Canyon area. Several commissioners accused Gordon of misleading them about the amount of grading involved, and said that they never would have approved the work had they known.

Gordon, who owns the Ma Maison Sofitel Hotel in West Los Angeles, is accused of grading 560,000 cubic yards of earth, despite a permit that was to have limited the grading to 40,000 cubic yards.

While halting future development of the rugged hill property overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the action left unresolved what may be done to restore the damage caused by the grading.

Several residents whose homes are near the property had opposed the revocation, saying that the $1 million Gordon has spent to restore some of the damage is not enough, and that unless he is allowed to complete the project heavy rains are likely to cause landslides in the exposed hills.

Commissioner Madelyn Glickfeld, who lives in Malibu and who voted to revoke the permit, called the grading “a project of obscene proportions,” and added, “To do this much damage for the sake of four estates is just an environmental crime.”

Local environmentalists called it the worst violation of its type they can recall in the Malibu area.

“He chopped down a mountain, and now he’s having to face the consequences,” said community activist Sara Wan, whose husband, Larry, was recently elected to Malibu’s future city council.

Gordon’s attorney, Joseph Petrillo, a former coastal commissioner who helped write the state Coastal Act, indicated that his client will go to court, if necessary, to overturn the panel’s decision.

“This is not a simple situation where some guy got it into his head to say he’s not going to bother with obtaining permits, that he’s going to go out and grade whatever it is he wants,” Petrillo said. “My client didn’t try to hide anything from anybody.”

Gordon said that he was not made aware by project engineers of the amount of grading involved until after the work was done. However, he said that once he learned of the mistake, he did not try to pull the wool over the commission’s eyes. He said the commission staff had access to information about the progress of the work early on and should have been able to deduce that more grading was involved than originally stated.

He said the revocation was “politically motivated” and was especially critical of commissioner Glickfeld.

“I think I’m her target,” he said. “I’ve got this big bull’s-eye on my forehead, and people want to make me out as some kind of criminal.”

Gordon, who has lived in Malibu for 15 years, bought the property five years ago intending to build a home there and devote most of the acreage to pasture land for some of his prize-winning jumping horses.

In 1986, the commission approved the permit enabling him to subdivide the property into four estates, each with at least 40 acres, but imposed several conditions, including the grading limit.

After investigators for the Coastal Commission discovered the grading violations early last year, the panel immediately issued a stop-work order, and later ordered Gordon to take steps to correct the damage.

The developer said that he has spent more than $1 million in the last year to recontour some of the damaged slopes in the hope that the commission would ultimately approve his request to go forward with the work.

“I’ve spent $10 million out there, including the purchase price, and it’s costing me $100,000 a month in interest charges while the work is being held up, and I think I deserved better than that,” Gordon said.

However, that argument did not impress Glickfeld.

“Mr. Petrillo says that his client is the innocent victim of bad representation by a consulting engineer, and that he had never done a residential subdivision in the coastal zone,” Glickfeld said. “Well, I’m sorry, that’s no excuse.”

Gordon developed the Beverly Center in Los Angeles, and his company was also the developer of the San Francisco Centre, a huge shopping complex here that opened last year.