Development Permit for Santa Monica Mountains Equine Facility to Get a Second Look

The activist group Save Open Space is asking the California Coastal Commission, which meets on Thursday, to revoke a 2007 coastal development permit for an equine facility in the Santa Monica Mountains that environmentalists claim is a water polluter. SOS alleges the permit was granted because the applicant—Malibu Valley Farms, located just outside Calabasas—intentionally submitted false information.

In its report, Coastal staff sided with some of SOS' allegations, including that "inaccurate or incomplete" information was submitted to the Coastal Commission in 2007 on the extent of the project's review by the county and other state agencies. However, Coastal staff has recommended the commission not revoke the permit based on the view the seven commissioners who voted in favor of the permit (five voted against) would have done so even if they did not receive the allegedly false information because they believed the project was consistent with the Coastal Act, the rulebook the commission uses to make its decisions.

"The commission's findings make clear that the commission found ample support for its approval in the evidence in the record without the need to rely on [the other state agencies and the county]," the staff report states.

Valley Farms' application was for an after-the-fact permit to cover a rebuilding process that followed a 1996 fire that destroyed a portion of the facility located on a 35-acre property at the northeast corner of Mulholland Highway and Stokes Canyon Road in unincorporated Los Angeles County. The Coastal Commission also granted the right for additional development. A lawsuit was pending in 2007 between Valley Farms, represented by attorney and Calabasas City Councilman Fred Gaines, and the Coastal Commission over whether a permit was needed for the rebuilding. The suit was dropped following the hearing.

Whether the Coastal Commission will accept staff's recommendation is not clear. Eleven of the 12 commissioners were not on the state panel in 2007. The one person who remains is William Burke, an advocate of the facility because of its association with the Compton Jr. Posse, a riding group for underprivileged children from East Los Angeles.

The previous commission hearing was a contentious affair, with environmentalists saying the facility needed to be moved back from its close proximity to Stokes Canyon Creek because horse manure was polluting the water. The water flows from Stokes Canyon into Malibu Creek and eventually reaches the Malibu Lagoon. Valley Farms denied the pollution allegation and said the facility could not be moved back because it would take it off flat land, which is needed for an equine facility.

Coastal staff had recommended against the permit because, among other reasons, of the alleged pollution. Even some of the commissioners who voted in favor of the permit said they were bothered by the alleged pollution, but believed the facility's association with the Compton Jr. Posse trumped this.