County Plan for Malibu Sewers Rejected

The Local Agency Formation Commission on Wednesday rejected a request to allow Los Angeles County to retain jurisdiction over sewers and landslide assessment districts in Malibu, even if the coastal community votes to become a city.

The 4-3 vote by LAFCO commissioners is a temporary setback for county supervisors, who have tried to place a regional sewer along the Malibu coast for more than 20 years, and a gain for backers of cityhood, who argue against such a system because they say it would attract unwanted development.

However, since it appears likely that supervisors will delay a Malibu cityhood vote until March, it gives the county time to try to approve plans for a sewer system before residents in the community can vote on incorporation.

LAFCO also voted to remove Pepperdine University from the proposed 21-square-mile city boundaries, excising one of Malibu’s largest property owners from the proposed city. Officials at Pepperdine, whose property would be cut nearly in half by the new boundaries, had objected to the incorporation, saying that a new city council might block the university from carrying out $32 million worth of development plans.

“We’re going to have to paint huge billboards saying ‘Leaving the city of Malibu’ all around (the university),” said Walt Keller, co-chairman of the Malibu Committee for Incorporation. “The most important thing now is that we eventually get this thing to a vote (of Malibu residents).”

Diamond Bar Papers OKd

Before the spirited four-hour hearing on Malibu’s cityhood request, the commission approved an incorporation application for Diamond Bar, including an area of 1,500 homes in the southern San Gabriel Valley that Supervisor Pete Schabarum had wanted to exclude from the proposed city’s boundaries. Provided that LAFCO receives no requests to reconsider its vote, the matter will reach the Board of Supervisors by Aug. 11, the deadline for placing a measure on the November ballot.

Schabarum had argued that the area, which contains about 4,500 of the 60,000 residents within the proposed city, should remain in the county to help provide a tax base for neighboring Rowland Heights when that community eventually incorporates. According to a LAFCO report, the area, which includes a large shopping center and industrial park, generated almost $500,000 more in revenue than it consumed in services during the 1985-86 fiscal year.

However, three of the six commissioners voted against Schabarum’s motion to exclude the disputed area after hearing testimony from residents, who delivered petitions with more than 1,000 signatures, asking to be included in the proposed city.

“Well, we’re on the road to cityhood,” said Gary Werner, chairman of Diamond Bar’s Incorporation ’88 Committee. Schabarum, who sits on the LAFCO panel along with Supervisor Ed Edelman, led the county’s fight to retain control over sewers in Malibu, repeatedly saying that he didn’t believe a city council there would approve any sewer system that would deal with the alleged health hazard created by leaking septic tanks in the area. He said that county jurisdiction over seven separate assessment districts in Malibu was needed to reduce the county’s liability in landslide-plagued areas of the beachside community.

However, LAFCO Chairman Tom Jackson disagreed, saying that a new city council would adequately deal with landslide liability problems and sewers in the area.

“Why does the county continue to say that the county is the only one who can deal with this problem?” Jackson asked. “I’m a councilman and I believe that city councils act reasonably and responsively in dealing with these types of problems.”

LAFCO approved Malibu’s cityhood petition on May 25. Wednesday’s hearing dealt with specific “reconsideration” requests by Malibu property owners and the county.

By removing nearly 400 acres of the Pepperdine campus from the proposed city boundaries, LAFCO’s staff must now adjust projected municipal revenue figures and report back to commissioners July 27. Schabarum has said he will seek to delay a November election if the county didn’t get a favorable ruling on sewer jurisdiction from LAFCO.

Times staff writer Jeffrey Miller contributed to this story.