Water Board Approves Lumberyard Mall Permit
• New Opening Date for Development on
City Property Is Now Early February
The Regional Water Quality Control Board
last week approved a wastewater discharge permit sought by
the City of Malibu and the developer of the Malibu lumberyard
shopping center on city-owned land.
That meant several city officials,
including City Manager Jim Thorsen, Building Department
head Vic Peterson and others, missed the City Hall holiday open
house when the board meeting went on until 7 p.m.
“We are obviously delighted with the
approval of the permit and the deliberations of the
board,” said Fiona Hutton, a public relations specialist
for Richard Weintraub, who holds the site lease and is
developing the commercial center.
The current estimate for the opening date
of the shopping center is now the first week of February,
according to Hutton.
Observers at last week’s RWQCB
meeting said the approval was no “slam-dunk,”
if the hours the commissioners took asking questions and
deliberating on the tentative order was any indication of the
panelists’ leanings on the matter.
There were some changes to the original
order, including setting a limit on phosphorus, limiting the
length of the permit to three years instead of five, requiring
immediate notification of the RWQCB if nutrient limits are
exceeded and mandating the hook- up of the center to a
centralized treatment plant in the Civic Center area
within six months of when such a plant would become
operational.
One pivotal environmental group that did
not oppose the permit was Heal the Bay, which had previously
called for halting any more permits until the city had legally
committed to a centralized plant in the Civic Center.
Apparently language added to the conditions
of the permit that mandate the shopping center’s hook-up
to a centralized plant built for the Civic Center mollified
critics. Hutton said they also were informed that language in
the city’s lease also mandates such a requirement.
The water board’s 33-page order that
received staff recommendation for approval, spells out the
requirements and conditions for the wastewater discharge
permit, as well as the water reclamation requirements for a
system that will utilize a portion of the city’s Legacy
Park.
The city and the center developer,
operating in tandem, successfully sought a permit for
discharging treated effluent through a leachfield in Legacy
Park.
This includes pipelines and a pumping
system for recycled and reclaimed water for irrigation in
Legacy Park, and diverting a portion of influent to holding
tanks for emergency discharge.
