Trancas Town Project Clears Legal Hurdle : Development: Appeals court upholds firm’s right to build 35-acre subdivision. Malibu vows to continue fighting the plan.

Opening the way for what is believed to be the biggest subdivision in largely rural west Malibu, a court has upheld a developer’s right to build 15 single-family homes and 52 townhomes on 35 acres west of Trancas Canyon Road, near Pacific Coast Highway.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal held on May 10 that Trancas Town Inc. should be allowed to proceed with the project because it has obtained the necessary government permits and spent thousands of dollars to move the plan forward.

But Malibu this week appeared determined to continue fighting the project. The City Council on Monday decided to ask the appeals court for another hearing. If the hearing is not granted, City Atty. Christi Hogin said, the city will take the matter to the state Supreme Court.

West Malibu residents have opposed the 67-unit project on grounds that it is out of step with the area’s abundant open space, which includes wooded canyons and sprawling horse ranches. The city’s current zoning in the area is one house per five acres. If that standard were applied to Trancas Town’s plans, the project would be limited to just seven houses.

But the development will not be subject to the city zoning restriction because it was approved by Los Angeles County in the 1980s--before Malibu incorporated.

“Our biggest concern is this is an enormous development completely out of sync with the rural nature of the area,” Hogin said. “It’s a case of private property rights versus public interest. This is the last of the projects inherited by the county.”

Trancas Town attorney Alan R. Block, however, said the legal victory was long overdue. Block said the developer plans to resubmit its final building maps and proceed with the subdivision.

Trancas Town’s legal tangle with the city began when Malibu incorporated in 1991 and enacted a moratorium prohibiting any development within the jurisdiction for two years. The next year, however, the city agreed to consider developers’ tract maps that had already been approved by the county.

But in 1993, the city rejected Trancas Town’s plans, saying tentative tract maps for the project had been filed late.

In 1993, Trancas Town took the matter to Superior Court. A hearing on the matter resulted in a ruling that Malibu’s rejection of the tract maps was arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law.

The city appealed that decision in April, 1994. But this month the appeals court sided with Trancas Town, stating: “It would be manifestly unfair to penalize a private citizen who has spent thousands of dollars to obtain government approval of its development. . . . Malibu cannot avoid its mandatory ministerial duty to certify Trancas’ final map if [they] have satisfied all the conditions attached to the tentative map and the requirements of the Subdivision Map Act.”