La Paz Hearing Postponed until After April
8 City Council Election
• Dissenting Minority Charges that
Delay on Commercial Project Is Politically Motivated
Amidst squabbling among Malibu City Council
members that the process had become politicized, the council on
a 3-2 vote with Mayor Jeff Jennings and Councilmember Ken
Kearsley dissenting, agreed to postpone the hearing on plans
for a Civic Center shopping center called La Paz until after
May 1, when a reconfigured council will be seated.
The matter was originally scheduled to be
heard by the current sitting council on March 24, but
Councilmembers Andy Stern and Pamela Conley Ulich said that
would mean two sitting councils might be voting on the issue.
However, Mayor Jeff Jennings wanted no part
of it. “I am not willing to put it over. I am not going
to make a political decision. The applicant is entitled to a
hearing,” said Jennings, who indicated that he
still had not heard any reason to postpone the date.
The mayor said there was also no reason to
suspect that new council members would have anything but a long
learning curve. “I don’t see that it would be any
easier,” he added. “It does not have to go to two
councils.”
Both Jennings and Kearsley will be termed
out and no longer sitting on the council in May. Conley Ulich
is up for reelection.
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who
became the swing vote to delay the hearing, nevertheless
charged the issue is a “political thing.”
“I agree with Jeff. This is
political. One of the candidates has already come out
against the project,” she said. Barovsky said she was
getting a lot of calls from residents who were supporting the
plans for a nearly 100,000 square foot commercial retail office
complex located just east of the library in the Civic Center.
Kearsley also charged the matter was
political. Without elaborating, he said he wanted to speak to
Ozzie Silna, a frequent critic of the council. “I want to
send a message to Ozzie and all his toadies. Be careful of what
you wish for,” he said.
Stern and Conley Ulich argued the
complicated matter could encounter unanswered questions that
would require additional information of the staff or applicant
and could take more than one hearing. The scheduled date, March
24, is the last meeting of the council before the April
election.
The applicant, through consultants and
attorneys, urged the council to keep the March 24 date, saying
they had been at it for almost eight years and wanted to wait
no longer.
Both Stern and Conley Ulich said it seemed
prudent that the application be postponed until after the April
election so in that way La Paz and the community would have the
benefit of a stable council, without the pressure of time, to
give its due consideration to the complicated proposals.
The hearing is actually a package of two
separate projects, with one being a development agreement
calling for increased Floor Area Ratio in exchange for a city
hall. It was first heard by the planning commission, which
recommended to the council approval of the smaller version of
the project without a development agreement.
There was testimony from some of the
neighbors, who contended their concerns had not been fully
aired and especially damaging was testimony from officials of
Water Works District 29, who said information about their
requirements for an off-site water tank for fire protection was
excluded from the record and should be considered by municipal
officials.
