Controversial Malibu Plans OKd

Plans by Mayor Richard Riordan’s wife, businessman Eli Broad and television magnate Haim Saban to build three sprawling homes on the beachfront in Malibu won unanimous approval Wednesday night from the California Coastal Commission, despite neighborhood opposition.

Under the plan worked out Wednesday and approved 12-0 by the commissioners, the homes will block a total of about 300 feet of public ocean view. In exchange, the partners will buy a nearby 80-foot stretch of beach and donate it to the Coastal Conservancy for public use.

“The total package we’re getting here is very positive from the public perspective,” said Coastal Commission Chairwoman Sara Wan.

Residents who spoke at the hearing disagreed, saying the commission was bending the rules for well-connected citizens.

“The state of California has charged you with the responsibility for looking out for the interests of all the citizens of this state, not just the interests of three exceedingly rich and very powerful people trying to rush their applications through,” said Jeff Greene, a developer whose plans to buy the 80-foot stretch of beach were quashed.

The residents also cited safety concerns about the project, because the proposed public-access beach is on a curved stretch of Pacific Coast Highway with no parking.

“People are going to die there,” said resident Brady Westwater. “I’ve seen cars demolished beyond recognition. It’s almost a monthly occurrence.”

The residents cited statistics from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department showing that 20% of all vehicle crashes on Pacific Coast Highway from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the western city limits occur along that curve.

A Coastal Conservancy spokesperson told the commission the conservancy will conduct a study of safety issues in the next several weeks and determine how best to resolve them.

The whole conflict started when trusts established by Broad, Saban and Nancy Daly Riordan, the mayor’s wife, acquired a total of six parcels and made plans to demolish the houses on them and replace them with three larger homes.

Because of the size and design of the three proposed homes, the ocean view from Pacific Coast Highway would be cut off at each of the sites.

The Coastal Commission opposed the new plans and demanded that each of the three home sites, which average about 100 feet along the highway, include 20 feet of “‘view corridor.”

The partners, displeased with that scenario, made the Coastal Commission a counteroffer: If it would let them cut off the ocean views around their homes, they would buy an 80-foot stretch of a nearby beach and protect it from development. They would then get their houses, they said, and the public would not only get more view--in many ways, a better view, because it would be in one chunk rather than three 20-foot intervals--but also access to that beach.

But resident Todd Sloan asked commissioners: “If this is such an act of high altruism, then why don’t they offer the public access through their own view corridors?”

Another angry party to this agreement is Greene, a developer whose deal to buy 80 feet of beach from Pepperdine University collapsed after 18 months in escrow. When Broad and his partners bought it instead, he complained loudly.

“Pepperdine secretly sold the property using a hidden escrow . . . because of high-pressure tactics by representatives” of the partners, Greene said Wednesday.

Pepperdine Real Estate Director Dennis Torres denied that any pressure was brought against him or the university to sell the property to Broad and his friends.

For his part, Mayor Riordan angrily objected Wednesday to the suggestion that he had anything to do with the proposal that has riled some Malibu residents. He said the transaction involved the separate property of his wife, and vehemently disputed the suggestion that he had any role in the episode.