U2 guitarist gets OK for Malibu project
After years of skirmishing over a rock star's proposal to build a secluded compound on a rugged Malibu ridge, the California Coastal Commission has recommended the project move forward - with modifications.
U2 guitarist the Edge, aka David Evans, has gone to great lengths since 2006 to secure permits to build five homes, including his own, and an access road on Sweetwater Mesa in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The coastal commission staff in February 2011 rejected the Irish musician's plans for construction of the five widely spaced mansions with swimming pools, saying they would scar a steep, undeveloped ridgeline visible from much of the coastline, cause extensive geological disturbance and destroy environmentally sensitive native vegetation.
The staff also contended that Evans was attempting to bypass environmental rules and maximise development by submitting five separate applications, each under a different corporate name.
For the last year, staff members have been quietly negotiating with Evans' extensive team of environmental consultants, lawyers and lobbyists.
The two sides ultimately reached a settlement agreement, posted on the commission's website, calling for Evans to cut the size of the development area, reduce the amount of grading, cluster the houses on a lower plateau and lower the height of some residences.
"From Day 1 I had told these guys that the one way to get to approval" was to make these changes, said Jack Ainsworth, the commission's senior deputy director.
"And here we are back at that same place many years later."
The applicants "worked hard to adhere to all the conditions laid out by the commission," said Fiona Hutton, their spokeswoman.
Environmental groups and residents of canyons and hillsides had lambasted the original proposal, saying it would cause irreparable harm to habitat and views, as well as further erode ever-shrinking open spaces.
Many opponents were stunned when the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which had initially decried the project, abruptly backpedalled in May 2011 and voted to adopt a position of neutrality. The vote came after Evans and his team agreed to pay the conservancy $US750,000 ($A811,469) in cash so that it could purchase land, including an easement across the properties to extend the Coastal Slope Trail.
