The future of the project rests with the California Coastal Commission, a mighty and aggressively view-preserving state agency that has jurisdiction over most development near the coast; it is expected to rule on the proposal this summer.

Image David Evans, better known as U2's the Edge, right, and Stephen Billings, a landscape architect, walking on the property Mr. Evans owns above Malibu. Credit... Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times

The mountain skirmish features both traditional adversaries — those who would like to live in remote areas and those who would like to preserve them — as well as new and increasingly visible foes: green on green.

On one side are conservationists and the state agencies charged with preserving public spaces, views and access. On the other, Mr. Evans with his green building plans and U2 environmental credibility, enhanced with the blessing of Mark Massara, an environmental lawyer and former Sierra Club official.

“Rather than fighting every project,” Mr. Massara said, “it’s a much more prudent exercise to try and inspire other landowners to do things that are not only in the best interest of the environment, but also to protect the homes and enhance the values here.”

Mr. Evans and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, bought the five lots in 2006 with the Irish developer Derek Quinlan for $9 million. The designer of the houses, Wallace Cunningham, said his goal was to make them emulate their natural surroundings among the butterflies and rattlesnakes a few miles above the Malibu town center. He also wants to make them “biographical,” and to that end, he stayed with Mr. Evans, his wife and their two children to study how they live in their current Malibu home.

But the conservancy and residents in the canyon below want none of it. They have complained most loudly about the 20-foot-wide, 1,600-foot-long access road, which they argue would be an eyesore and geologically unstable, and the 70,000 cubic yards of dirt required for the project. Upsetting the ecosystem is also among the worries.

“This is the biggest and most problematic development we have ever had here,” said Lawrence Weisdorn, the president of the Serra Canyon Property Owners Association, which represents about 95 homeowners below.