This coming Monday evening, July 14, the planning department will be recommending that the city council appropriate approximately $850,000 to pay an outside team of planners and consultants to generate the Civic Center Specific Plan and Design Guidelines. This money will have to come out of the general fund reserves, currently estimated at $16.4 million.
Anyone who knows Malibu knows that another Civic Center Specific Plan will be D.O.A. long before it is submitted to the council for a vote. The winning firm, M.I.G., apparently doesn’t know this, as they have painted a rosy picture, stating that the Malibu “… community has shown its willingness to accept new development … provided tangible community benefits are provided.” And they are more than ready to use this complete misreading of the residents to take $1 million from us to play planning games for the next couple of years.
So the questions are numerous. Why are we about to throw 6% of our reserve funds away? Why are we giving our money to a planning firm that, according to their website, doesn’t even have a Los Angeles office (and clearly doesn’t understand the community sentiment)? Why would the city council deny Malibu Unites, a 100% local organization with the health and safety of our own children at heart, $25,000, yet approve 40 times that amount on what any local knows is a quixotic adventure in pie-in-the-sky theoretical planning? Why did the City Council not side with the residents on the formula retail ordinance, thereby forcing one of our local families to reach deep into their pockets in order to essentially do the city’s job? Why do we have $16.4 million? How did we get it?
I encourage you to come to the City Council meeting on Monday, sign a speaker slip and request that your elected representatives answer these questions before spending a ton of our money. That’s right; our money.
Lester Tobias