Malibu Township Council v. City Council of the City of Malibu CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. The “Override” Lawsuit In 2009, the City of Malibu (the City) sued the California Coastal Commission (the Coastal Commission) and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (collectively, the Conservancy). The factual background of that matter, which is complex, is described in detail in City of Malibu v. California Coastal Com. (2012) 206 Cal.App.4th 549 (the “Override Lawsuit”). For our purposes, it suffices to summarize the dispute as follows: the City filed a petition for writ of mandate after the Conservancy proposed amendments to the City’s local coastal plan, the Conservancy “asked the Coastal Commission to declare, in effect, that the override procedures contained in the Coastal Commission’s

2 regulations authorized the Conservancy to ask the Coastal Commission to certify the Conservancy’s proposed amendments to Malibu’s [local coastal plan] over the objections of the city,” and the Coastal Commission agreed that the override provisions applied. (Id. at 557-558, 560.) The trial court disagreed with the Coastal Commission, concluded the override procedure did not apply, and granted the requested writ…