County OKs West Malibu Development

The county Board of Supervisors has approved a controversial proposal to build 69 luxury homes near the foot of rugged Encinal Canyon in western Malibu after the developer dropped plans for an 18-hole golf course.

The supervisors voted 3 to 1 late last week to permit construction of the gated community, tentatively called Rancho Malibu Estates, 3 1/2 miles east of the Ventura County line.

A county commission last year approved a request by the developer--VMS Realty Partners of Chicago and its subsidiary, the Anden Group--to exclude the 270-acre tract from the proposed city of Malibu.

Malibu voters this month approved cityhood and elected a council that is expected to restrict new construction.

Only Supervisor Ed Edelman voted against the housing tract. Supervisor Deane Dana, whose district includes the development site, was joined by colleagues Pete Schabarum and Mike Antonovich in voting for the plan. Supervisor Kenneth Hahn was absent.

Neighboring homeowners protested that the luxury homes will be out of place on the sagebrush-covered hills just north of Pacific Coast Highway.

The homeowners promised to carry their fight to reduce the size of the project to the California Coastal Commission, which will be the final agency to study the proposal before construction can begin.

The developer proposed last year to build a golf course and 62 homes. But homeowners complained that the movement of 4 million cubic yards of dirt required by that plan would be an environmental disaster. The Regional Planning Commission rejected that proposal in May, 1989.

Sandy Russell, a member of the La Chusa Highlands Property Owners Assn., told the supervisors Thursday that the new plan is still too large. She said the developer should build fewer homes on smaller lots, to match the density of the rest of the region.

“Something that would be built in Orange County or Pacific Palisades should not be built on a pristine bluff top,” Russell said.

She said the new homeowners could be put in danger in country frequently scorched by brush fires, because only one access road to the development is proposed.