Go tell it on the mountain: The Edge doesn't need five homes here
By Steve Lopez
LA Times
December 23, 2009
Just so you know, it's not easy for me to refer to U2 guitarist David Evans as "The Edge." Sure, there was a time when I referred to myself as S. Lo. But I quickly realized that once you've gone gray, it's hard to get away with anything other than what's on the birth certificate.
And I can't keep a straight face when I tell you that the five eco-friendly castles Mr. Edge wants to carve into the top of a pristine ridge near Malibu already have names. There's "Clouds Rest" and "Panorama," "Shell House" and "Blue Clouds." And my personal favorite, "Leaves in the Wind."
The latter is also the name of a website (www.leavesinthewind.com) promoting the controversial project, which would sit high above the Malibu pier, with a sweeping, miles-long view of spectacular coastline. You'd think a guy from one of the greatest bands in history could come up with a name that was a bit, shall we say, edgier, for a rock 'n' roll compound.
The Malibu area has been buzzing since a video was added to The Edge's website in the last several weeks, perhaps in anticipation of an upcoming California Coastal Commission hearing on the proposal. Against a gag-inducing track of New Age music, with birds tweeting in the background, fawning proponents of The Edge's plans praise the project. His supporters include Bonny Reiss, Gov. Schwarzenegger's former senior advisor, and, more surprisingly, Mark Massara, head of the Sierra Club's Great Coastal Places Campaign.
"It's going to take those visionary leaders being associated with projects like these, that are going to show how to make the California coastline a model of sustainability," Massara says on the video, in which he all but encourages the Coastal Commission to embrace the proposal.
Clearly The Edge is lining up all the political muscle and environmentalist star power he possibly can. He's even got a well-connected PR and lobbying firm -- California Strategies -- backing him up.
And that combination of clout and slick marketing is part of what riles Malibu City Councilman Jefferson Wagner. Although the compound would be outside Malibu city limits, it would require major expansion of a road within the city. Wagner is not inclined to vote in favor, and he's not a fan of the website testimonial, which makes no mention of all the dust in the wind there'd be once the bulldozers take the mountain...
Lobbyists who worked on the Edge's project are urging legislators to approve a measure that could clear the way for his development, which the Coastal Commission rejected.
U2 guitarist may get a second chance at Malibu mansions
By Michael J. Mishak
Los Angeles Times
June 16, 2012
SACRAMENTO — The California Coastal Commission rejected a controversial proposal last year by U2 guitarist the Edge to build five mansions on a scenic bluff above Malibu, saying that it would scar a rugged ridgeline and harm sensitive habitat.
Now, some of the same powerful lobbyists and lawyers behind the musician's quashed development are working the halls of the Capitol to push a bill that could give the rock star another chance at his dream compound.
Environmentalists and state agencies say that if the legislation becomes law, it will undermine the commission's position on his project and also extend to the character and development of the entire California coast and to state public lands.
At issue is how government agencies determine property ownership and how they use the findings in deciding whether to approve development.
Currently, the Coastal Commission has discretion to approve projects in environmentally sensitive areas — and the size and nature of those developments depend on ownership. The agency is more inclined, for example, to turn down a developer seeking approval for a multi-home project than a property owner trying to build a single-family house.
Developers at times try to skirt the issue by claiming each homesite has a different owner. They shield the identities through formation of limited liability corporations.
In the case of the Edge, whose real name is David Evans, the agency denied his plans because it said he was attempting to bypass environmental rules and maximize development by submitting five separate applications, each under a different corporate name.
Under the bill, state agencies would have to accept as fact that the person holding the deed is the property owner. If the state sought to challenge true ownership, it would be held to the same evidentiary standards that apply in the court system. The Coastal Commission and others argue that the standard would hamstring public agencies because they have none of the court system's tools of discovery: subpoenas, depositions and sworn testimony.
Sarah Christie, legislative director for the Coastal Commission, said the result would be a chilling effect on public agencies' abilities to carry out their missions, giving any developers who game the system more clout and potentially leading to "more fragmented, inappropriate development" along the coast.
Environmentalists cast the bill as a power grab by developers and special interests, including Evans.
"The forces who want to maximize their profit above all else are seeking to rewrite the rules in such a way that ensures the state government has limited ability to oversee and to take care of our public trust resources," said Adam Keats, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The bill's author, Assemblyman Ben Hueso (D-Logan Heights), said he introduced the bill to rein in what he sees as an overzealous bureaucracy that uses arbitrary standards to block development, a notion shared by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups. Its purpose is not to advance the interests of the U2 guitarist, Hueso said.
Hueso, a former coastal commissioner, said the measure would end the commission's "very abusive strategy to prevent someone from developing even an environmentally friendly project." He said public agencies would still have the resources to investigate ownership.
"If we have every agency in California cherry picking projects they don't like, it's going to create an enormous problem in our ability to do business in California," he said.
The legislator said he got the idea for the bill from Paul Bauer, one of the lobbyists Evans hired last year to help him before the Coastal Commission.
Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, who also worked as a consultant on Evans' development, has lobbied the agency to support the legislation. In an email to the chairwoman of the commission last month, Nuñez said he was sharing his own view, not that of a client. "This bill would prohibit local agencies from discriminating against some by inserting their own interpretation of property ownership," he wrote...
