The public hearing for the much-discussed and highly controversial “Whole Foods in the Park” development project in the Malibu Civic Center Monday night seemed lost in time since, despite three years having passed since the original scoping meeting for the project in May 2012, residents brought up the same old concerns over traffic and fire safety.
“I don’t feel we as a city have looked at the traffic impact of the trucks that unload and load every day now, without any development in the Civic Center beyond what we already have now,” said Serra Canyon resident Anne Payne.
Payne spoke during the public hearing at Monday’s Planning Commission meeting, touching on similar concerns to those she presented at the 2012 scoping meeting, according to notes included in the draft-EIR.
“Ms. Payne was concerned about the flow across Cross Creek Road, and thought there would be a safety gate,” say the notes from that meeting, found in Appendix 1 of the draft-EIR.
Plans for the Whole Foods project have been discussed off and on for many years, with some residents expressing excitement for a new shopping center with public park-like landscaping, while others warn there could be unintended consequences for traffic to the nearby Serra Canyon neighborhood, a threat to safety in the event of a fire and an onslaught of visitors increasing PCH traffic.
Tension only grew in 2014, as the new Whole Foods became a symbol of development used by both sides of the Measure R debate. Developer Steve Soboroff, whose LLC — The Park at Cross Creek — is proposing the 38,425-square-foot, five-building project, was also the financial backer of the “No on R” campaign and has recently filed a lawsuit against the city together with the Malibu Bay Company.
At the draft-EIR public hearing, Payne included concerns over evacuation routes.
“Cross Creek Road is the critical point for evacuation for all the people, the animals … it would only take one truck to block the hundreds of residents and visitors,” Payne said.
The newly published draft-EIR includes several pages of traffic analysis.
The traffic study claims no significant traffic increase would occur with the construction of the Whole Foods, based on numbers gathered in on Thursday, July 12, 2013 and Saturday, July 14, 2013.
According to Commissioner John Mazza, who presented a dozen comments to planning department staff in regard to the draft-EIR, the lack of significant traffic increase came as a surprise.
“It doesn’t seem plausible, but that’s a scientific discovery,” Mazza said.
Mazza was not the only one to attend the meeting who was surprised at those findings, as evidenced by a presentation made by local stakeholder Steve Uhring.
Uhring presented data he collected from previous traffic studies made for nearby projects at Legacy Park — located across Civic Center Way from the project site — and La Paz — located directly to its west — as well as Caltrans reports. According to Uhring’s analysis, there is an unexplained decrease in projected traffic to the area.
“You’re going to be surprised to hear this, but traffic is going down up to 25% in some of our major intersections,” Uhring wryly told Commissioners.
Uhring seemed to be accusing Whole Foods developers of downplaying possible traffic increases, a charge that stakeholder Paul Grisanti took exception to.
“First of all, I’d like to just mention that the [draft] EIR was authored by a company not hired by Whole Foods,” Grisanti said, “[It was] authored by a company that was hired by the City of Malibu.”
Grisanti went on to suggest traffic decreases could be explained by the proposed Rancho Malibu Hotel development, which is now no longer being planned.
“As far as the traffic count confusion, I’m wondering if the fact that the hotel is now out of those traffic counts has anything to do with that,” Grisanti offered.
These concerns were not immediately addressed by staff, who are still collecting comments.
Although several residents and interested parties came to speak at the meeting, the vast majority were there to express support or disdain for the project, not to comment on the draft-EIR.
“This meeting is just for comments in the EIR,” a somewhat frustrated Commissioner Mikke Pierson told the audience, requesting they continue to submit comments to planner Jasch Janowicz.
The 45-day public comment period began Feb. 5 and runs through March 23, at which time residents and experts are welcomed to submit comments, concerns and questions to the City. These can be directed to Janowicz, either via email (jjanowicz@malibucity.org) or addressed to Janowicz at City of Malibu-Planning Department, 23825 Stuart Ranch Rd., Malibu, CA, 90265.
