City Council Poised to Retain Theater and Recording Studio

• Staff Recommends Current Fees for Immediate Bookings

BY BILL KOENEKER

Malibu city officials have laid out detailed plans about how they intend to utilize the media equipment left behind in the old performing arts center building that is owned by the city and is being readied for a new City Hall.
The city council is being asked to direct the staff to issue a request for a proposal for media management services at the new City Hall. At the same time, the municipal staff has prepared a fee schedule for use of the facilities including the theater, recording studio and banquet facilities.
“The city intends to leave portions of the performing arts center, including the theater and recording studio, with the remainder of the building to be redesigned as a functional city hall,” wrote Assistant City Manager Reva Feldman, in a staff report to council members. Feldman indicated the city could generate up to a $100,000 in revenue.
The media manager services would include the oversight of the recording studio and theater.
The city is currently working with an architectural firm for a redesign of the rest of the building’s space for offices.
“In the meantime, there have been multiple requests for use of the building in its current state,” added Feldman.
The fee schedule is proposed for current uses until an agreement can be reached for media management services, and then a revised fee schedule will be brought before the council, according to Feldman.
Fees range from use of the recording studio for $5000, the theater for $4500 including additional costs for rehearsals, the banquet room for 200 guests for $7000. Prices vary for motion picture filming, still shoot filming, kitchen, wardrobe room and encore room charges.
In its RFP, the city notes the facility is a “state-of-the-art media center designed to attract high-end recording and performance artists.”
The city wants the media company to “market and manage the media center, recording studio and performance theater.”
In other action, the council is being asked to give the go-ahead for the city manager to execute a contract with the low bidder for the construction of the Trancas Canyon Park. No additional information was available as the Malibu Surfside News went to press.
The city is still embroiled in litigation with the Malibu Township Council over the municipality’s approvals of the permits for the park which includes a playing field, dog park and other amenities. There is no injunction that stops the city from proceeding with its actions.
Also on tap, the council is being asked to approve a proposed law that would make it illegal for anyone to make, reproduce, manufacture, display or use the city seal or logo or design or any design resembling the city seal or logo. The violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
The government code allows that cities can have such a logo or seal. “Many cities adopt an ordinance regulating the use of the city seal and logo so that if some one were to misuse them, the city could impose criminal penalties upon that party,” wrote City Clerk Lisa Pope, in a staff report. “Adopting such an ordinance would make the city seal and logo property of the City of Malibu and would allow the city clerk to be their custodian.”
The city council is also scheduled to hear an appeal of a planning commission decision denying an ocean bluff top staircase to the beach. The proposed staircase is 110 feet long, three feet wide and would be located within a five-foot wide pedestrian easement.
Planners indicate the Local Coastal Program and its Land Use Plan do not allow for either a pedestrian access or staircase on the ocean bluff. The city biologist also made a determination that the project cannot be approved for LCP conformance as submitted.
The applicant, through his attorney, has argued the denial amounts to a taking. Planners counter that a taking does not occur “simply because a government action deprives an owner of previously available property rights.”
“Denial of the application to construct a private staircase on a bluff face does not in any way interfere with the existing uses on the subject properties,” a planner wrote in the staff report.