Residents File Lawsuit Against Malibu High Lights
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(Client: Malibu Community Preservation Alliance)
“Three of the five had an evident predisposition,” Hogin said. “The city holds itself to the highest ethical standards, and they were recused. We kicked it to the City Council which could put together a majority without any of those conflicts.”As far as the environmental allegations go, the California Environmental Quality Act asks only that City Hall understand the environmental impact, which it did, Hogin said.
Under the compromise approved by the City Council, the lights may stay on until 7:30 p.m. between the first Sunday in November and the second Sunday in March for 45 days.
They may be lit until 10:30 p.m. up to 16 times, but not on two consecutive nights and not more than twice per week between Sept. 1 and May 31.
The goal was to allow the field to be lit for Friday night football games and other sporting events, but it ran afoul of residents who cherished the dark skies of Malibu, Hogin said.
“There’s the long American tradition of Friday night football games as a community event and the desire to have a world class high school with a competitive football program on the one hand, and on the other hand you have a rural residential community that values dark skies and the wildlife habitat and is very careful in its development standards to make sure that development is not too intrusive,” Hogin said.
It’s unclear at this point if the lawsuit will stop progress on the lights.
District officials were served with the suit on Monday, and have sent it to their attorneys for review.
In the meantime, the Malibu Community Preservation Alliance is hoping for a compromise, Winikoff said.
“I think it’s unfortunate that we had to do what we had to do to show that we were serious,” Winikoff said. “We’re totally open to (settlement).”
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