Idea of a City Hall at West Malibu Farm Gets Razzed

BY HANS LAETZ

The special citizens committee considering Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich’s idea to build a new city hall at Point Dume got off to a contentious start Monday, with the mayor’s two appointees absent.
The committee discussed at length what it was that the Malibu City Council expected them to come up with, with some members saying the proposed consensus to draft a wish list without studying potential negative impacts was a waste of time.
The definite buzz from the committee, however, was that its members by and large felt the proposed conversion of one of Malibu’s last farms to a municipal center was a terrible idea.
The members elected Point Dume activist and Planning Commissioner John Mazza to serve as chair, and he asked committee members to draft a wish list of what the members, and the general public, think should be built at the 9.84-acre hilltop farm at the north side of the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway at Heathercliff Drive.
The site, between Vital Zuman Farm on one side and Malibu Stage Company on the other, is for sale for $4.9 million, and the city manager has said it would cost $200,000 for an option to purchase the land, and an environmental impact report costing about as much to go through with the deal.
City Manager Jim Thorsen has determined that the site could support a building of about 85,000 square feet without violating the city’s 15 percent building density rules, if the city were to change its zoning from residential to commercial zoning, similar to the Point Dume stores on the other side of PCH.
Thorsen had an aerial photo of the blufftop farm delivered to the meeting, which showed a rough outline of what Mazza said was a building “90 percent the size of the La Paz” commercial center proposed for the Civic Center area.
One issue of contention at Monday’s meeting was whether such details as traffic counts, geologic maps, specific noise impacts or rezoning issues should be examined by the committee, or whether the group was simply designed to hold public hearings to determine a “wish list” and compile some rough pros and cons.
“The one thing we need to look at is the zoning, because without changing the zoning, some of these proposals would never fly,” said committee member Susan Tellem, who lost a bid for a city council seat last year.
But Mazza said specific items like that should be left to the city council members. “It’s way above our pay grade, telling the city council what they can do with zoning.”
The committee members ended up agreeing to quickly schedule two public hearings at City Hall to gauge the opinion of as many Malibuites as possible, compile the list and as many pros and cons as it can assemble for each idea, including a city hall, lumberyard, teen center, senior center, athletic fields, or the status quo.
That last option is apparently very popular among members of the committee, many of whom at one time or another during the meeting expressed disdain for building a city hall on the blufftop site above Zuma Canyon, one of the last agricultural vestiges of a bygone Malibu.
But Mazza kept reminding them that the decision-making power rests with the city council, and the committee has been charged only with taking testimony and gathering options.
Members Alan Berliner and Al Giuliani said they live off Bonsall Drive downhill from the site, and indicated that they are worried about lights, density and sewage disposal.
Carol Randall, who lives on PCH near Big Rock, said she was opposed to moving City Hall to the western part of the city, which some advocates have pointed out is the population center of Malibu. “Doing that will do nothing more than split the city in half,” she said.
Tellem and longtime environmental activist Jo Ruggles said they were opposed to developing the site with a city hall.
No public voices were expressed in favor of the western Malibu city hall concept at Monday’s meeting, which was attended by one member of the public and two reporters.
The committee members are Charleen Kabrin and Giuliani, appointed by Councilmember Sharon Barovsky; Daniel Stern and Kathy Wisnicki, appointed by Conley Ulich, Mazza and Randall, appointed by Councilmember John Sibert; Lester Tobias and Dusty Peak, appointed by Councilmember Jefferson Wagner, and Berliner and Ruggles, appointed by Mayor pro tem Andy Stern. By consensus, the council appointed Tellem and Michael McDonell as at-large members.
The committee members, when introducing themselves, revealed the committee is made up entirely of veteran Malibu residents, with lengths of residency ranging from 11 to 49 years. The 10 committee members who were present said they had a total of 242 years in residence here.
The committee will meet to hear from the public and draw up its wish list at 6 p.m. next Thursday, Sept. 4, and again at the same time Monday, Sept. 15, at Malibu City Hall, 23815 Stuart Ranch Road.