Stymied by prohibitive fees to pay for an aging infrastructure, officials propose forming an assessment district to improve local water supplies for fighting fires. One city leader proposes buying the local water district.
By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times
City Manager Jim Thorsen said the Malibu City Council will consider at its May 23 meeting what steps can be taken in forming a special community assessment district that could help upgrade an aging waterworks system and improve Malibu’s fire fighting capabilities.
In response to a special town hall-styled meeting last week hosted by the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, it will bring to light the problem many property owners are now facing: they aren’t allowed to build on their own lots until they agree to pay for the costly water tanks and piping to meet required water flow to fight fires by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Waterworks District 29, which services Malibu, says it cannot provide the infrastructure.
Don Schmitz, a local developer who sits on the chamber’s board of directors, said Malibu property owners recently surveyed by the chamber, who applied for infrastructure upgrade services to meet the county fire department’s requirements, were invoiced anywhere from $200,000 to $900,000 for installation fees for which they would be responsible.
Joe Phelps, one of 18 property owners who attended the May 3 meeting at Pepperdine University, cited a more exorbitant price tag. The Pacific Palisades resident bought 27 acres of land in Carbon Canyon in March last year for more than $950,000 and was told by county officials that he would need to pay up to $1.2 million in improvements before he could build his new home. Phelps is now saddled with empty land he can do nothing with until he pays the fees.
At the meeting last week, it was suggested that the assessment district could be used to levy fees to pay for water tanks, water mains and piping not offered by the water district, which has 7,450 service connections in Malibu, according to the Los Angeles County Public Works Web site. Authorities at Water District 29, which is second oldest only to Kagel Canyon’s Water District 21, have done little to modernize their equipment since forming in 1959, Schmitz said. Consequently, water supply and service would not be up to par in the event a structure fire broke out in a newer, modern dwelling.“They’re breaking, they’re leaking, they’re extremely antiquated,” Schmitz said.
Schmitz cited a 1998 Public Works study stating that the water district was more than $108 million deficient in its water flow infrastructure. Adjusted to today’s dollars, that figure, Schmitz said, would more likely be $150 million. Water District 29, unlike the neighboring Las Virgenes water district, doesn’t have its own master plan.
Pulling from a 2004 Local Agency Formation Commission study, Schmitz also added that the district experiences on average a 6.3-percent water supply loss, totaling more than 173,612,000 gallons per year. The LAFCO had criticized the district at the time for its lack of long-term maintenance plans and zero assets.
The district does levy capital improvement fees, Schmitz noted, though they pay for maintenance and repair, not for the installation of water mains, piping and storage for new residential building sites.
One unknown factor is if, or when, county fire codes were changed, placing the burden of cost on the property owner instead of the entity providing service, in this case, Waterworks 29.
“All the fire department is doing is requiring the fire flow spelled out in the fire code,” James Dull, the county’s fire marshal, said. “We’re going to address the county’s policy as far as what we do.”
Virginia Fowler, a spokeswoman for Water District 29, said she was unaware of last week’s meeting. Water District 29 would have attended, she said, but wasn’t invited, but Rebekah Evans, Chamber of Commerce executive director, noted that it was purely for informational purposes and not meant as an arena for formal debate.
Schmitz mapped out at the meeting the benefits of an assessment district. Using Carbon Mesa as an example, he said that the tax paid by residents of that neighborhood could help pay for the installation of 40 individual 10-gallon water tanks for each residence. It would go to supplement the district’s existing 200-gallon tank, providing the area with more than 600 gallons of water for fire protection with no cost to residents.
Jefferson Wagner, the only Malibu City Council member at the meeting last week, believes another alternative to an assessment district may be the solution for Malibu’s lacking supplies of firefighting water, especially for residents who could afford the fees. “I think it would be more effective for the city to buy District 29,” he said. “You’re not going to find people who want to contribute to an assessment system when they have adequate pools or tanks. Why should they pay when they’ve already paid?”
Nonetheless, Wagner noted that the city and county need to be on the same page regarding building permits and fees because some new property owners in Malibu have been left stranded with land they aren’t allowed to build on until they comply with fire codes.
“The standards shouldn’t be vacillating as often as they do, and possibly the city shouldn’t be awarding building entitlements without telling the property owners that these deficiencies will be recognized by the county, and thus affect their actual building rights,” Wagner said.