Civic Center Area to Become ‘Rural Coastal Village’

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Rural Coastal Village

At its third and final meeting, the Malibu Civic Center Design Standards Task Force agreed on a set of general design guidelines that will be presented to City Council for approval. It’s hoped that the guidelines will eventually pull together the look and feel of the Civic Center area into something more akin to a town center — as opposed to a disjointed patchwork of strip malls and government buildings of varying architectural styles, interspersed with parkland and vacant lots.

The proposed design standards do not specify a particular architectural style, only that the area should have the overall look of a “rural coastal village.” This was determined by the results of a “charrette” process employed at the second task force meeting by outside consultants MIG and John Kaliski Architects. The definition of “rural coastal village” was hotly debated by some members of the task force, who found it vague and ambiguous.

In fact, disagreement over the definition nearly prevented anything from going to City Council until task members finally decided to drop that discussion in the interest of moving on — it was the last budgeted night and last opportunity to get design standards incorporated into the City’s planning process.

The general design standards, which came about through the same charrette process and will serve as a guideline and criteria for future development, were agreed upon by task force members. They include streets or sidewalks that “meander,” parking that isn’t so visible (by putting it behind buildings or between trees), low buildings, clustered buildings, connecting paths, pedestrian-friendly walkways, use of natural materials, sustainable designs, minimal outdoor lighting, open and public spaces, use of native or drought tolerant landscaping with various plant palettes and building colors using natural color palettes.

The task force was formed because of an unprecedented amount of new commercial development being planned for the Civic Center area over the next few years. City Council saw an opportunity to establish design standards that could be incorporated into some of the proposed construction projects before their final approvals, but only if they acted quickly.  

During a public comment period, Barbara Cameron pointed out, “The City Council chose this particular method so we could get something in place to guide all the upcoming development; they didn’t want something that would take two years to get through the Coastal Commission.”

Planning Director Bonnie Blue said the new design standards would be approved too late to have any effect on the “La Paz” project, which has already obtained its Coastal Development Permit (CDP), but other projects still in the pipeline for planning approvals could still be impacted, including the Civic Center wastewater treatment plant, the Whole Foods (or other store) project (which is coming up for an Environmental Impact Report [EIR] public meeting on June 11), the Legacy Park Art Enhancement Project, a PCH parking plan, the Sycamore Village project and the Santa Monica Community College Malibu campus.

Don Schmitz, a consultant for La Paz, said it already represents the spirit of the new design standards. “La Paz is a variance-free project,” he said. “It follows the design of the Adamson House and has good connectivity to the rest of the Civic Center area.”

Blue said the Planning Department will put the proposed design standards online in order to collect additional public input, but it will be about six weeks before it’s “up and running.”  She said in the meantime, “We can put a moratorium on new building until the design standards are finished.”

Some of the design standards outlined by the task force would require zoning changes in the Civic Center area. Public commenter Cameron said, “There are inherent conflicts within our own zoning codes that will prevent some of the stated goals from happening; like changing the setbacks (distance from a building to the street), the square footage ratio of development to open space, having one-story buildings instead of two and emphasizing tree-scapes instead of landscapes.”

A number of problems and suggestions concerning the Civic Center area were discussed that the consultants said were not appropriate to include in design standards. These include amending the General Plan and LCP (Local Coastal Plan) to include senior/affordable housing and mixed-use development, redesigning public streets, a pedestrian bridge over PCH, amending the zoning codes for setback and parking requirements, a land acquisition plan, having a shuttle, sharing of parking facilities and various public safety issues.