Action on Canyon Project Delayed : Development: Coastal Commission grants developer’s request for more time to work on grading plan for tract in Malibu’s Encinal Canyon.

A state panel’s decision on whether to allow a developer to grade 3.1 million cubic yards of earth and build 69 luxury homes in Malibu’s Encinal Canyon has been postponed until at least May.

The California Coastal Commission last week granted a request by VMS Realty Partners of Chicago and its subsidiary, the Anden Group, to postpone the matter after the developer’s lawyer complained that a report issued by the commis sion’s staff had misinterpreted the developer’s intentions.

The commission staff had recommended that the panel, which met in Marina del Rey, reject the project.

“I think they saw that (the proposal) was about to die and wanted out (of the hearing),” Commissioner Madelyn Glickfeld said after Thursday’s postponement.

Environmentalists and local residents contend that the project on 270 acres just outside the boundaries of the future city of Malibu would wreak environmental havoc and harm property values of nearby homes.

About 50 opponents, including many who chartered a bus to attend, were at Thursday’s hear ing.

“It’s disgusting when you go to the trouble to make your voice heard, and then they use these delaying tactics,” opponent Lucile Keller said. “Now they’re telling us we’ll have to go to San Diego the next time.” The commission’s May meeting is in San Diego.

VMS-Anden has scaled back the project considerably since 1989, when it first sought approval from Los Angeles County to grade more than 8 million cubic yards of earth as part of a plan to build 62 homes and a championship golf course.

The county Regional Planning Commission rejected that proposal in May, 1989. The Board of Supervisors approved the plan to build the 69 homes in the canyon last June after the developer dropped plans for the golf course.

Malibu cityhood backers were upset after VMS-Anden won approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission in 1989 to exclude the rugged hillside property from Malibu’s boundaries.

Malibu’s slow-growth-oriented City Council, which will take office when Malibu becomes a city March 28, has asked the Coastal Commission to reject the project.

Since December, the developer has agreed to reduce the grading from 3.8 million cubic yards and take other measures to make the project more acceptable. In its report, however, the commission staff said that the latest plan still calls for too much grading.

A spokesman for VMS-Anden said the developer plans to do “everything that it can” to make the project more acceptable to critics. “I think you’re going to see a substantial modification,” spokesman Barna Szabo said. “If not, it’s apparent we aren’t going anywhere.”