Liability, Due Process Shape Home View Law
Posted by Daniel Antolin on Dec 13, 2011 - 10:18:17 PM
Malibu homes. Photo courtesy of city's official website.
MALIBU—On Monday, December 12, the Malibu City Council voted 4-1 to direct city staff to draft an ordinance that would give the Planning Commission the authority to decide if homeowners' trees and other foliage blocks their neighbors' views and if it should be trimmed. If passed, the ordinance would allow these decisions to be appealed to the city council.
A majority of the
council decided to vote for this option as opposed to staff's preference for simply providing
an advisory opinion on a view restoration grievance to avoid potential lawsuits filed against the city by disgruntled homeowners. City Attorney Christi Hogin assured councilmembers that plaintiffs would have to prove that the city's decision was arbitrary, capricious, not supported by appropriate findings, discriminatory or that it violated their civil rights, which would be difficult.
But before lawsuits can be filed, neighbors could try to work together to resolve their view obstruction issues or engage in a mediation process. They could opt out of mediation, but would be liable for 100 percent of the cost of cutting down their problematic trees or foliage. If mediation does not work, and a Planning Commission decision is rendered, the claimant would pay for this cost. An exception would be made for senior citizens or those living on a fixed income.
In a second vote, the council decided 3-2 to have the ordinance's language specify that homeowners would be protected from trees and other foliage obstructing their views that were planted from the time of the property's purchase or from when Malibu achieved cityhood in 1991, whichever date is most recent. A third time period considered was 2008, when a majority of Malibu residents voted for the ordinance by passing Measure E into law.
This was one aspect of a lengthy due process discussion focused on finding a balance between the need to protect homeowners' views versus punishing those who planted trees and foliage years earlier not knowing that it might one day obstruct neighbors' views or be deemed illegal. Hogin said a lawsuit filed in protest of a Rancho Palos Verdes view restoration law established that such a tree would not be deemed illegal in that the council would simply be seeking that it be trimmed.
Staff will have four weeks or until the city council's first February 2012 meeting to prepare the new draft of the proposed ordinance. Homeowners are encouraged to email Associate Planner Ha Ly at haly@malibucity.org with their home view grievances to give the council a full scope of the issue.
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