Legal Blow Dealt to Cityhood in Malibu : Incorporation: Three-judge panel rules that county supervisors can delay the seaside community’s cityhood date. Delay sought for start of sewer project.

Malibu cityhood advocates were dealt a severe blow Monday when a state appellate court ruled that Los Angeles County has the authority to delay the seaside community’s incorporation as a city until next March.

The unanimous decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeal represents a crucial victory for the county, which wants to start work on a controversial $43-million sewer system in Malibu before a new city government has the chance to block it.

A three-judge panel in Los Angeles struck down a decision by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Zebrowski, who had ruled in May that the County Board of Supervisors did not have the right to delay Malibu’s incorporation.

The appellate court ruling would also leave Malibu’s newly elected municipal officials without a city to govern until March 28, the date the supervisors set for incorporation.

Voters last month overwhelmingly approved cityhood, and all five members of Malibu’s future City Council have said they will oppose the sewer on the grounds that it would encourage excessive development.

Cityhood backers said that they plan to appeal Monday’s ruling to the California Supreme Court.

“We’re not about to give up,” said Walt Keller, one of the future council members. “We intend to be a pain in the you-know-where until we get a just decision that people here can live with.”

Left unchallenged, Monday’s ruling greatly increases the county’s chances of starting work on the sewer before Malibu becomes a city.

Asked about a possible appeal, Jeffrey Kramer, an attorney for cityhood backers, said: “If that is what’s decided, I hope the Supreme Court would hear the case as expeditiously as possible in order for (the appeal) to be worthwhile.”

At issue before the appellate court was whether state law gives county supervisors the authority to set the actual incorporation date when none is specified by the Local Agency Formation Commission, the body that oversees the transition of unincorporated communities to cityhood.

State law allows the commission to delay an incorporation up to a year after the certification of votes. However, the commission imposed no such condition on Malibu after the election that approved incorporation. Lawyers for the county argued that if the commission does not do so, state law gives the supervisors the right to delay cityhood.

In its opinion, the appellate panel alluded to the “ambiguity” of the 1985 law governing the establishment of new cities. Presiding Judge Joan Dempsey Klein, who wrote the opinion, said that to have interpreted the law any other way than in the county’s favor would have rendered the statute virtually meaningless.

County officials were not available for comment after the 21-page opinion was issued late Monday afternoon.

The decision comes just two weeks after the California Coastal Commission dealt a setback to the county’s plans to speed construction of the sewer system. The state panel rejected the county’s request to start the work without having to wait for several intermediate approvals that ordinarily could be expected to take several months.