Decision on Malibu Housing Project Postponed : Development: Coastal Commission will wait until March to hear firm’s proposal for 69 luxury houses in Encinal Canyon.

State action on a developer’s proposal to grade 3.8 million cubic yards of earth and build 69 luxury homes in Malibu’s Encinal Canyon has been postponed until March.

The California Coastal Commission was expected to consider the proposal this week in Marina del Rey, but the developer asked for the delay after it was unable to prepare revised plans in time for the meeting, a commission official said. The March meeting is also scheduled to be held in Marina del Rey. “We are working with the commission staff and we intend to work further with people in the Malibu community to refine our plans,” said Michael Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the developer, VMS Realty Partners of Chicago, and its subsidiary, the Anden Group.

The state panel had been scheduled to consider the proposal last month, but after the commission staff recommended that the project be rejected, the developer asked that the matter be postponed.

In an interview, Rosenfeld said the developer has tentatively agreed to reduce the grading by 180,000 cubic yards and to save all but nine of 143 oak trees on its 254-acre tract above Pacific Coast Highway, three miles from the Ventura County line.

However, Rosenfeld said there were no plans to reduce the number of houses VMS-Anden wants to build there.

“We think we have an environmentally sensitive project as it stands, and that it also shows sensitivity to community sentiments,” he said.

Critics of the project, who say the luxury homes would be out of place on the sagebrush-covered hills, remain skeptical.

Sandra Russell, a spokeswoman for the Malibu West Community Council, which opposes the project, said the developer wants to build “probably three times as many homes as we would find acceptable.”

“There are a number of things that are objectionable about the project, and I’m not aware of any efforts (the developer) has made to address our concerns,” she said.

Los Angeles County supervisors approved the plan to build the 69 homes in the canyon last June after VMS-Anden dropped plans for an 18-hole golf course.

To the dismay of Malibu cityhood backers, a county commission in 1989 approved a request by VMS-Anden to exclude the rugged hillside property from the future city of Malibu.

VMS-Anden had originally wanted to build a golf course and 62 homes, but homeowners complained that the movement of 8 million cubic yards of dirt required by that plan would be an environmental disaster. The county Regional Planning Commission rejected that proposal in May, 1989.

Opponents contend that if the subdivision is built, the new homeowners in an area frequently beset by brush fires could be in danger because only one access road is proposed for the development. Some nearby homeowners have also expressed concern that fumes from a waste treatment plant the developer wants to build at the site might decrease the property value of neighboring homes.

VMS-Anden has dismissed the fire concern as unwarranted, saying the county Fire Department and the Department of Public Works have scrutinized and approved the plans. The developer says that by giving up the golf course, it has already gone to great lengths to satisfy the homeowners.

Meanwhile, the coastal panel is scheduled Thursday to consider whether to approve the construction of a $43-million sewer system that the county wants to build in Malibu.

As expected, Malibu’s unofficial City Council last week asked the state panel to follow the recommendation of its staff and reject the project.

In a related matter, the council also voted to oppose a developer’s plans to build a 985-foot-long retaining wall and four luxury homes on Sea Level Drive along Malibu’s Broad Beach, saying it would open the way to more development along the unspoiled beach.