I urge you all to attend the Planning Commission meeting on July 21 and voice your opinions about the proposed HOWS Shopping Center expansion. The developer is asking for variances that would allow them to more than double the existing square footage of the current center and add an 80-space parking lot on the west side of Trancas Canyon, and develop the old Riders and Ropers lot east of Trancas Creek.
I don’t know why on God’s green earth that our Planning Commission and City Council would allow these requested variances. Didn’t we become a city so we would have control over needless excess development?
As much as they want to tell you otherwise, the developer has one objective in mind, to maximize profit. Sure, the proposed project will provide some new tax revenue to the city but at what cost?
Furthermore, the city’s staff has not even recommended that an EIR be done! Can you imagine doubling the size of a shopping center that is 100 yards from the ocean and 50 yards from a creek and not requiring an EIR?
This project abuts the Malibu West Community with probably the highest concentration of children in Malibu yet no pedestrian safety study has been done.
Finally, one last tip for these recessionary times, if you’d like to sell your support to the developer, I understand he’s buying dinner at a local restaurant before the meeting.
Mark Wetton