This is what started it
Septic Ordinance Raises Stink in Calabasas
By Annemarie Donkin
http://www.topangamessenger.com/articles.asp?SectionID=17&ArticleID=3838
As many systems fail inspection under a new City ordinance, support grows for Old Topanga as homeowners fight to keep their septics in and sewers out.
Seeking to protect their rural environment, a group of residents in Old Topanga have instigated a plan to detach from the City of Calabasas rather than submit to what they consider a harsh and restrictive ordinance regulating their septic systems.
The homeowners also object to a proposed plan by the City to run a sewer line 6,200 feet up Old Topanga Canyon Road that would allow development of many undersized lots that cannot be developed because they do not meet the requirements for septic tanks.
In addition to those living on Old Topanga Road, the other residents who have Onsite Waste Treatment Systems (OWTS) reside in the Calabasas Highlands, the historic Bird Streets and a small part of Cold Creek. The communities lie within the 90290 zip code but were incorporated into the City of Calabasas in 1991.
Everything was quiet until, in March of 2008, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board notified the cities of Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Westlake Village that they were in violation of California clean water laws because of high bacteria levels in the Santa Monica Bay.
The notice of violation technically applied only to Malibu Creek, because the runoff from Topanga flows into the Los Angeles River.
Nevertheless, in an effort to be environmentally responsible, the Calabasas City Council, led by Barry Groveman (an environmental lawyer who co-wrote Proposition 65, the California safe drinking water act) ordered up a study to prevent any of the 140 OWTS systems in the area from creating pollution or groundwater contamination.
After months of discussion between the community and city staff, the Calabasas City Council in a 3-2 vote adopted Ordinance No. 2009-262, a thirty-one page document.
The ordinance was implemented at the end of 2009 and requires all property owners with an OWTS to secure an operating permit by May 14, 2010 or face monetary penalties.
To protest the ordinance and sewer plan, the Old Topanga Homeowners Inc., the OTH, started the process to return to unincorporated Los Angeles County.
Their claim is that the City of Calabasas has created the most overreaching and punitive on-site wastewater treatment system ordinance in the entire state, if not the nation.
Septic Inspections
The average lifespan of a septic system is 20-30 years. According to Sparky Cohen, head of the Building and Safety Department for the City of Calabasas, some septic systems in Old Topanga go back to the 1940s and many have never been pumped.
"You would think that septic inspections and permits would be enough," said Jody Thomas, president of the Old Topanga Homeowners Association. "Yet City Hall fully intends to commit millions in taxpayer dollars and ten of thousands in costs to resident homeowners, when water tests show the highest levels of E. coli are in Dry Canyon Creek which follows Mulholland Highway, a sewered area."
Yet, some of the fears by the City may be justified.
Cohen presented an update on the voluntary inspections of 21 OTWS systems at the January 27 Council meeting.
His findings were that out of all the systems tested, only two passed and were eligible for a new, five-year operating permit. The others would need some level of mitigation to qualify, from pumping to major rebuilding.
Cohen reported that many of the OWTS were completely inaccessible and many had never been pumped. Cohen said the most alarming discovery were the two systems that discharged their wastewater directly into Dry Canyon Creek.
"I feel rather strongly that this needs to be addressed quickly and efficiently," Groveman said. "With regard to what they are finding, I am not surprised; all tanks leak if they are not maintained or upgraded. This doesn't bode well for the problem. They need to take it seriously and work with us to stop the environmental degradation that it causes, because there is no issue to that."
Undaunted and exasperated by the lack of response from the City regarding their objection to the Ordinance, the group of about 29 homeowners of the OTH has filed the preliminary paperwork to detach from Calabasas
Most recently, the association submitted a tract map to the Local Agency Formation Commission for Los Angeles County (LAFCO) outlining the boundaries of the subdivision to determine how much detachment would cost.
The homeowners are also reaching out to the community at large for support of their cause and it's beginning to resonate with other groups who support their campaign, said Toby Keeler, a spokesman for the Old Topanga Homeowners' Association.
At the OTH's request, the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation passed a motion in November to support Old Topanga and the continuing majority of its homeowners in their efforts.
The Topanga Town Council issued a letter of support on January 1 for the OTH, expressing its concern for the proposed sewers that the feel would immediately encourage rapid development.
Chairman Roger Pugliese, the Topanga Association for a Scenic Community (TASC) stated that it unanimously supports Old Topanga Homeowners, Inc.'s efforts to seek detachment from the City of Calabasas, and return to unincorporated Topanga.
According to Keeler, Save Open Space (SOS) voted late last year to support Old Topanga's detachment from the City of Calabasas.
Still, Calabasas City Councilmember James Bozajian urges caution. He voted against the current version of the Ordinance and is adamantly opposed to sewers in Old Topanga.
Yet, as the majority landowner in Old Topanga with 84 parcels, he said the City could easily defeat any detachment efforts by the OTH.
"I don't support the secession movement, it's short sighted and not the right reaction at this time," Bozajian said. "I have sympathy for how they feel, I know how upset they are, [but] the better way to do this is to work through the political process and not just leave the city over one issue."
Sewers
"If there is one main issue, yes, sewers are our biggest concern," Thomas said. "Without a doubt, extending a sewer into Old Topanga would not only be very expensive for the taxpayers of Calabasas and the homeowners forced to hook into it – but it would breed development like a pond breeds mosquitoes."
Thomas' concerns and those of the OTH are not without merit. Thomas cites the neighborhood of Calabasas Highlands before they went on sewers.
"You would remember a tranquil, scenic, rural community much like ours remains today," she said. "Since the sewer expansion in the Highlands however, developers have overtaken every square inch of available space."
Groveman defends the City's plan to conduct an environmental impact report before determining the need for sewers in Old Topanga.
"The whole purpose of the EIR is to find all this out, if everything was in compliance, we would not need a sewer, Groveman said. "Development doesn't change the facts, even if you are against development, you cannot be for a leaking septic.
Yet, Thomas recalls a different attitude, that of sewers becoming a foregone conclusion.
"When our time limit was squeezed to six months, the City argued they needed to speed the process so they could collect data more quickly so that sewers could be installed within the next two years," she said. "Curious that this will also coincide with the re-election of Barry Groveman and Dennis Washburn in March of 2011."
Thomas said a developer who plans to build several homes just south of Canon Place above Old Topanga has already contacted her.
"He said the City told him sewers would be installed within two years," Thomas said. "Interesting that building officials are already telling this to developers when an EIR has yet to be ordered, let alone reviewed?"
Still, the tactics of the council do not fool many longtime homeowners on Old Topanga.
Babette Gibbs, the treasurer of the OTH, has lived on Old Topanga Road since 1978. Her husband was Carl Gibbs, founder of the Environmental Commission for the City of Calabasas.
"As long as Carl was there, we had a voice, until he died in 2006 Carl was on the environmental commission, he was highly respected," she said.
But Gibbs maintains things have changed drastically since 2003 when Groveman was first elected to the council.
"Nobody objects to having our septics looked at, we object to how they went about it," Gibbs said. "They want us to fail so they can put in sewers. They have a bit of glee to see us fail."
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