The Edge and his wife Morleigh Steinberg started looking for a site to build a custom home in the Malibu area during the summer of 2004.
The result of that search was the discovery of land above Sweetwater Mesa for sale with pre-existing entitlements for five homes. After initially disregarding it as too much for their needs, they finally bought this land with a view to bringing a number of friends together as partners in the project.
From the beginning the intention was to achieve a benchmark for sustainable design in a sensitive area. As the land had established entitlements, the real issue was not whether homes should be built there, but how to achieve the very best result for the environment, for Malibu architectural heritage, and for the visual beauty of the area.
Early meetings between the owners and professors at MIT helped form the basis of a design philosophy along sustainable lines. This led to the formation of the current design team led by California-based organic designer Wallace Cunningham, with the ultimate aim of creating a unified, holistic, environmentally sensitive, sustainable and site-specific architecture for all of the homes, and thus preventing inappropriate designs from being built on any of these legal home sites in the future.
Approval process
Since purchasing the five properties, The Edge and his wife and their partners have carefully guided their plans through the rigorous local and county approval process. Over four years the orientation of the homes has been refined, the size of the homes have been reduced, and the sustainability elements have been expanded.
Throughout 2006, the owners worked on a small pilot road, which had previously been approved by local authorities, to allow for required geological testing. As the testing progressed and the land was found to be safe for the homes, initial designs were created in consultation with leading designers and architects. The homes have been sited in the most appropriate locations to minimize impacts of the development area.
Once the designs were completed, applications were submitted to the County of Los Angeles for required local approvals. The Department of Regional Planning reviewed and approved each of the homes for conformance with local Zoning Ordinances.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department reviewed and approved each home to confirm that the residences and access road meet their standards to provide sufficient access to ensure the safety of the residences. The Fire Department also reviewed the proposed water line and submitted a letter identifying the need for the proposed water line extension in order to provide fire fighting resources in a Class 4 Fire zone.
Las Virgenes Municipal Water District reviewed and approved this proposed water line extension to serve each of the homes and made recommendations to ensure that the water main is constructed to public service standards. The design of the approved water line has been designed to minimize construction impacts, including the underground line being backfilled and re-vegetated to minimize disturbance to native habitat.
The Los Angeles Department of Environmental Health reviewed and approved next-generation septic systems proposed by the property owners that provide tertiary treatment to effluent prior to dispersal in order to ensure environmental protection.
After extensive review by the County Geology Department, the County concluded that there are no apparent geologic conditions that would affect the safety of the proposed homes or surrounding properties.
Throughout the planning and approval process, each home has been designed and reevaluated to ensure that potential environmental impacts are minimized to the greatest extent feasible. Although County Code allows residences to be a maximum of 35 ft. tall, none of the homes exceeds 28 ft. tall to minimize potential visual impacts. The homes will follow the natural terrain and be notched into the existing hillside to further minimize potential visual impacts. Other measures that have been taken to minimize potential impacts include substantial reductions in the size of the residences from what was originally proposed. Each of the homes will be contained within a 10,000 sq. ft. development area, which is very small in relation to the 20 to 40 acre sizes of the parcels. Amenities, such as guest houses and a detached pool, have also been removed to further minimize the extent of potential impacts to native habitat.
The result of this careful planning process is a unified, environmentally sensitive, site-specific architecture for all of the homes, with each able to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) Gold Certification. These truly sustainable homes prevent inappropriate designs from being built on any of these legal home sites in the future.