The City has the option of awarding a contractor $37,000 to design a permanent skate park, but complaints by the skateboarding community over lack of input could cause process to start over.
By Melissa Caskey / Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu City Council will decide Monday whether to approve plans to construct a permanent skate park at Malibu Bluffs Park or abandon the current plans and start over. Some members of the skateboarding community feel their input has been ignored during the planning process, and have requested a restart to the process to include greater public input.
The council will also consider approving a final design for an ocean-friendly garden at Bluffs Park, formally creating a Cultural Arts Commission and increasing the number of marathons allowed to be held in Malibu annually from four to nine.
Plans for a permanent Malibu skate park have been in the works since the City Council formed an ad hoc committee in Jan. 2011 to assess the need for a temporary or permanent skate park after developer Steve Soboroff did not renew the lease for Papa Jack’s Skate Park. The park closed in October and Soboroff donated $25,000 to move the skate ramps.
Members of the skateboarding community expressed frustration, however, when the city did not include anyone from the ad hoc committee or the local skateboarding community on a four-person panel that interviewed design contractors for the project.
Skateboarding community members said that by excluding them from the interview process, members of the panel were not able to wholly analyze the information consultants presented to them.
The interview panel, which consisted of Malibu Parks and Recreation Director Bob Stallings and Public Works director Bob Brager, as well as a park planner from Conejo Recreation and Park District, and a general manager from the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District, interviewed four design consultants in March. Ultimately, members recommended the council authorize a professional services agreement with Wormhoudt Inc., which has designed skate parks since 1974.
If the council votes to revoke the plans, then up to three ad hoc committee members or members of the skateboarding community would have to be included in each phase of the new planning process.
Ocean friendly garden up for funding
Construction of an ocean friendly demonstration garden is up for discussion as well, as the council may move to approve the design of the grant-funded project meant to educate Malibu residents on water conservation. The demonstration garden will serve as an example of land- and water-use optimization and be housed on a 5,400-square-foot area on the east side of Malibu Bluffs Park.
Planned amenities include a footbridge and two side bridges made of recycled materials, picnic tables, shade trees and a plant pallet filled with select drought-resistant plants and native California vegetation. The Parks and Recreation Commission has already approved the project design and recommended that City Council approve the project’s groundbreaking.
New marathon and road race policy
The Parks and Recreation subcommittee is asking the council to adopt a marathon and road race policy outlining specific city requirements for road race events in a written policy the city currently lacks. If adopted, the policy would allow up to nine events per year between Labor Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend (on Saturdays and Sundays only) and limit race courses to the section of Pacific Coast Highway between Malibu Bluffs Park and the Ventura County line. Contestants would also pay a 10 percent participation fee to the city.
Arts Commission to be made official
Also on the council’s agenda is the formation of a Malibu Cultural Arts Commission. Once the commission is created and each City Councilmember appoints one member to a four-year term in late July or early August, the five-person group will be responsible for matters concerning cultural arts in Malibu. The commission’s oversight is set to include cultural arts-related programs, facility rental fees, general funding grants and outreach.
The city is expected to task the group with drafting a Cultural Arts in Public Places Program as part of the Cultural Arts Report in a report started by the Arts Task Force.
Valets get makeover for night-time attire
The Public Safety Commission has recommended the city consider requiring valet workers to wear “reflective outerwear” anytime they are working, and also wear blinking lights on their ankles and arms from dusk to dawn.
The City Council meets on Mon., June 11 at 6:30 p.m.