Coastal Panel Delays Decision on Malibu Hotel

A Malibu developer, racing to start building a luxury hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean before a new Malibu city government has a chance to block it, was dealt a severe blow Wednesday by the California Coastal Commission.

The commission, meeting in this North Coast city, voted 7 to 4 to delay approval of a grading and site-preparation plan by the Adamson Cos. for a 27-acre site near Pepperdine University. The firm, one of Malibu’s largest landowners, had hoped to gain swift approval of the grading plan and be ready to start construction of the hotel as soon as the coastal panel decides that Los Angeles County can go ahead with a controversial $43-million sewer system in Malibu.

The proposed $65-million, 300-room hotel has met with widespread opposition in Malibu and would probably stand little chance of being built at its planned size had county supervisors not won a legal battle to delay Malibu’s incorporation until next March.

Adamson attorney Thomas K. Houston said the company hopes to try again for the panel’s approval in November. “We will go forward and do what we need to do and come back again,” he said.

But several commissioners, including Malibu resident Madelyn Glickfeld, who pushed for the delay, expressed hostility to the plan, saying that Adamson had misled them about the amount of grading involved.

“If they intend to operate their hotel the way they’ve handled the processing of their application for this project, God help us,” Glickfeld said.

She called the company’s request to grade 247,000 cubic yards of dirt from a hilly site above Malibu’s main commercial area a disaster. “You’re asking to scrape off every piece of natural vegetation there is up there.”

In approving the hotel in concept five years ago, the Coastal Commission stipulated that the sewer system must be in place before the hotel is allowed to operate.

Commission approval of the grading would represent the final bureaucratic hurdle the company faces should the county’s sewer plan get the panel’s go-ahead. The county is expected to seek that approval in November.

Wednesday’s outcome, while not a death-knell to the hotel project, further reduces its chances of being started before Malibu becomes a city next March.

The hotel may be on a collision course with a future Malibu government that is almost certain to try to prevent the sewer from being built once cityhood occurs.

As proposed, the hotel would include 11 low-lying, Spanish-style villas nestled into a hillside above Pacific Coast Highway, a 60,000-square-foot convention center, several restaurants and a separate office building.

Malibu’s council members, who have yet to take office, have expressed concern about the size of the project, and have said that they prefer to see construction delayed so that the new city can have a say in the matter.