Trancas Country Market Plans Headed for Planning Panel

• Redesign and Expansion of Businesses and Services Offers New Amenities for Western Malibu

BY BILL KOENEKER

Permits and entitlements sought for expanding the Trancas shopping center located at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Trancas Canyon Road are scheduled for a hearing before the Malibu Planning Commission on Tuesday, May 5, at City Hall.
Plans call for the renovation and expansion of Trancas Country Market, including a 37,372 square foot addition to the existing commercial shopping center, a new parking lot located across the street, a parking lot north of the supermarket, and a smaller center across Trancas Creek in the old Riders and Ropers equestrian site.
Dan Bercu, who heads up the ownership of the shopping center, said that instead of phasing the project piece by piece, all of the permits and entitlements are going before the planning panel at one time.
The plans for the existing Starbucks building call for two new restaurants and the construction of additional buildings to create a courtyard much like the Malibu Country Mart, including a playground.
Other retail shops are planned for a row of new buildings along the west side of the existing HOWS market. Additional shops and stores are planned for a concentration of buildings along the east side of the grocery store. A free-standing building that may house a bank would be located in front of the market, closer to PCH.
Another free-standing building planned for the far end of the parcel east of the Trancas Creek would consist of 11,644 square feet and house local retail businesses and office space, according to Bercu, who indicated there would be parking for 70 cars.
The shopping center owner said that he hired Burdge & Associates to do the design work on the center because it is primarily a residential architectural firm and he sought a residential approach so Trancas Country Market would blend in with the neighborhood.
None of the proposed new buildings are more than two stories tall and will not be over 18 feet, according to Doug Burdge, who currently lives in Malibu West and has spent a great deal of time going over the site firsthand.
Bercu said the design team has already incorporated much of the feedback they have received from Broad Beach residents, who have their own particular interests, Malibu West homeowners, who have another set of concerns and Malibu Park neighbors, who have expressed other preferences.
He said he wants to hear from any interested individuals. Bercu can be reached at 310-457-4484, or his cell at 310-994-2694.
Some of the most frequently expressed concerns that Bercu said he has attempted to tackle include keeping vacant land west of the Chevron service station as open space.
He also emphasized that the parking lot proposed for behind the service station, which calls for 80 parking spaces, will be for employees only. He said it will be made of a pervious surface and gated or monitored to maintain its employee-only status.
That parking lot will also be used for the Metropolitan Transit District bus turnaround. The public bus lays over at Trancas Canyon Road and has traditionally prepared for its return run by cutting through the rear Trancas Market parking lot.
Other suggestions incorporated into the plans call for the parking lot next to the garden center now located behind the current market to also be constructed of a pervious surface. This so-called lot B is being planned for 74 vehicles.
Other parking consists of the existing 160 parking spaces in front of the supermarket.
When asked about the plans for development on the old Riders and Ropers site, which has been earmarked for acquisition by the National Park Service for lagoon restoration, Bercu said the 6.44 acre site is for sale and he is on record as being a willing seller if the NPS can come up with $3.5 million price tag.
Bercu said he wants to emphasize his efforts to keep the current local tenants and cultivate more opportunities for local businesses to locate there.
Both Bercu and Burdge issued a call for Malibuites to shop locally and consider viewing the Trancas County Market as an ideal venue for shoppers to buy goods and services from local vendors, who will become Trancas Country Market tenants.
Their rationale was different from the usual pitch for a new center. Pointing to a paper entitled Carbon Offset Analysis for the Trancas Country Market, the report suggests that over a year’s time, “If Malibu residents shopped locally within a 10-mile radius of their homes, instead of shopping outside of Malibu, as much as 25 miles away from their homes, they would prevent their cars from generating 4954 tons of carbon emissions [in one year].”