Coaloa Fights for Sunset Apartments

Months after the appeal of a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) for a proposed 49-unit apartment building on Sunset Boulevard was approved in March, local developer Stefano Coaloa has appealed the West L.A. Planning Commission’s decision to a State body.

The California Coastal Commission (CCC) will hear the case on August 14 in Santa Cruz.

The Edgewater Towers Homeowners Association, a leading opponent of the project, appealed the zoning administrator’s decision to approve the CDP for Coaloa’s proposed development in 2011, citing concerns over geology, traffic and other factors. After reviewing environmental reports and traffic studies provided by both Coaloa and the appellant, Planning Department staff recommended that the Commission deny the appeal.

Despite this recommendation, the West L.A. Commission voted 4-1 to approve the appeal in March. Although the opponents laid out several points against the development, including calling for an Environmental Impact Report, the main point of contention for the Planning Commission was the property’s location on a coastal bluff, which has a long history of geological issues.

“I think it is completely unfair what they did,” Coaloa told the Palisadian-Post on July 22, adding that the CCC’s own maps of the area prove that the proposed project would not have rested on a coastal bluff. “There are two members of the Planning Commission who didn’t want it to happen, and they made an issue out of it.”

The terraced development, consisting of three large fragmented buildings and divided by an artificial canyon (hence the name Sunset Canyon), would have included 129 underground parking spaces and required the removal of 19,000 cubic yards of soil from the promontory overlooking Pacific Coast Highway.

During the West L.A. Planning Commission meeting in March, Commissioner Joe Halper told the boards that all the conditions set forth in (CCC) guidelines have to be applied to this property.

“In view of the disparity and requirements of the project description, I believe the ZA erred in certifying the environmental clearance for this project,” said Halper, a Pacific Palisades resident, during the March meeting.

Thomas M. Donovan, vice president of the Planning Commission, said in March that there was an error in finding the project consistent with the guidelines because of the question whether the area is a coastal bluff, or not. The commissioners seemed to agree that the CCC would better decide the matter, since the bluff definition is up to the Coastal Commission’s interpretation.