Malibu council approves revised Harvester Road home after year of appeals

The Malibu City Council approved a revised plan for a proposed new residence at 30053 Harvester Road on May 27, adopting the planning staff recommendation with an added condition that memorializes an agreement between the applicant and one set of neighboring appellants.

The decision ends one of two active appeals to the Planning Commission’s approval of Coastal Development Permit 23‑019 and Site Plan Review 23‑024 for the Kent property, but a western neighbor’s appeal that argued the site includes an environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA) was denied by the council following a de novo review.

Council members and staff said the action matters because the project drew repeated public attention over neighborhood character, building height and whether a drainage ravine on the property meets the Local Implementation Plan (LIP) definition of a stream. Planning staff told the council the project was previously approved by the Planning Commission, that the applicant had proposed a minor modification and that the city biologist had concluded in memos that the area in question “has no discernible features that would qualify it as being a stream and therefore ESHA.”

Planner Tyler reported that the applicant and the eastern neighbor, Paul and Andrea Phillipson, negotiated a change to the approved site plan: the main house was lowered about two…