A Fix for Film Feud in Malibu

Malibu has offered a carrot to the movie makers who made the city famous, but it’s also waving a big stick.

The City Council approved new rules that for the first time allow film shooting after 10 p.m. -- but only with the unanimous approval of nearby residents.

That and other rules were passed Monday night after a roiling feud over filming that pitted neighbor against neighbor and threatened to blow the cool of this legendary beach community.

The debate began when a film company could not obtain the approval of a single neighbor for extending filming. The city revisited its existing ordinance after hearing of abuses, such as homeowners demanding large cash payments and other perks for their consent to filming.

“If the neighbors are OK, we’re OK,” Mayor Andy Stern said Tuesday. “We were struggling to get to a point where a person could use their house for filming a reasonable number of days a year without negatively impacting their neighbors.”

More than 700 permits are issued every year for filming of movies and television. Residents charge up to $10,000 a day -- for a maximum of 20 days -- for use of their property as a film location.

The council kept at 20 the maximum number of days filmmaking can take place at a single location each year. Filming for the final four of those days would require unanimous approval of neighbors, as would night filming.

Malibu is known as a retreat for the Hollywood elite. It has been a backdrop for scores of movies and TV shows over the years, including the 1947 film noir classic “Out of the Past” as well as “MASH,” “Planet of the Apes,” “The Rockford Files,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Baywatch.”

More recently, the town’s collection of opulent beach houses has become a favorite for reality TV producers as the setting for such shows as “Beach Party House” and “The Osbournes.”

Councilman Ken Kearsley pointed out that Beverly Hills issues just 500 film permits a year, and Santa Monica 300.

“I wanted to get rid of this neighbor-to-neighbor internecine warfare that goes on,” Kearsley said. “I wanted to make it clean, make it simple.”

Kearsley called the ordinance revisions, which will receive a final reading in two weeks, “an acceptable compromise. It gives the residents a little more control of their environment.”