Malibuites Are Expected to Protest Proposed Septic Curbs

• Residents Face Several Key Issues on the Same Night at Meetings Many Miles Apart

BY ANNE SOBLE

One meeting is slated to take place in central Malibu on the Pepperdine University campus; the other takes place in a public meeting hall in Pacific Palisades; and one of the rare local school board meetings is also scheduled—all at the same time.
Malibu residents who care about the subjects of all three meetings—the possible termination of septic tank use for wastewater management; the approval of overnight public camping at five local sites; and the evisceration of district advisory committees—may find themselves in a quandary on Thursday, Oct. 1.
Possibly the biggest attention getter, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a community meeting to discuss septic prohibition in the greater Malibu Civic Center Area on Oct. 1 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Elkins Auditorium on the Pepperdine campus.
Special parking arrangements have been made for the sizable crowd that is anticipated to attend. To get to Elkins Auditorium, enter the campus on Seaver Drive off Malibu Canyon Road.
Two parking lots are available for the auditorium. From the Smothers parking lot (shown as Lot 1 on the map), walk down the main stairs toward the fountain in the center of the campus and the auditorium will be on the right.
If Lot 1 is full, participants can use the Theme Tower parking lot (shown as Lot 2 on the map), walk up the sidewalk on Seaver Drive, through the Smothers parking lot and down the stairs to the auditorium. Also, shuttle service is supposed to be available every 20 minutes from the Theme Tower lot to the Smothers lot.
The second meeting closer to home is the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board meeting that is set for the council chambers at city hall at 5:30 p.m.
If any of the board members wonder why there isn’t a packed meeting room, perhaps someone will suggest that there might be a greater effort to learn what else is going on in Malibu and adjust schedules accordingly.
Farthest from the home front is the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy meeting (see article on page 3) that is being held in Pacific Palisades, where attendance might be predicated on there not being another major accident on Pacific Coast Highway, such as occurred on Sunday.
All three meetings involve key public policy issues for Malibu and invite resident involvement.