One resident calls project “a fortress with retaining walls around it,” while the project’s developer counters it will be “the single largest economic generator in the city’s history.”
By Jimy Tallal / Special to The Malibu Times
It was a heated meeting at City Hall on Wednesday last week as more than 50 Malibu residents voiced concern and disapproval of the proposed Rancho Malibu Hotel project at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road. The complaints ranged from traffic impacts to fire safety, while project developer Richard Weintraub cast the project as a boon to the local economy.
The occasion was a scoping meeting for the project’s environmental impact report (EIR), a chance for the public to register its concerns with the project and have them answered by EIR consultant Dan Gira of AMEC Earth and Environmental when the first draft of the EIR is released in fall or winter.
The proposed Rancho Malibu Hotel project of local developer Richard Weintraub and partners will sit on a triangle of 27.86 acres. The Mediterranean-style complex will have 146 rooms, most of which will be housed in 21 detached two-story casitas. There would also be 543 parking spaces and on-site wastewater treatment, with 12 acres undeveloped. The facilities include a restaurant, retail spaces, bar, ballrooms, meeting rooms, swimming pools and function lawns. Units will be offered for sale in an “airspace subdivision” arrangement, which limits owners to 180 days per year and no more than 30 consecutive days per stay.
Several residents said the project would increase traffic and make it difficult to evacuate the area should a wildfire occur.
Activist J. Flora-Katz of Preserve Malibu said fire safety was a major concern. Flora-Katz read a letter from retired L.A. County Fire Capt. Bruce Collings calling the idea of a “resort-like edifice” in a canyon corridor a “horrific idea” in the wake of the Malibu Canyon fire of 2007.
Resident Brian Eamer noted that under the current plans, the entrances to the hotel site are on Malibu Canyon Road, and there are currently no turnaround areas for fire trucks or sidewalks or crosswalks for pedestrians. Eamer said a pedestrian traffic study needed to be conducted to determine safe paths of travel.
Others called the project too big for Malibu.
Resident Hans Laetz described the proposed hotel as a “fortress with a retaining wall around it” that isn’t consistent with the rural character specified in Malibu’s Local Coastal Plan. Laetz submitted a letter to the city identifying 28 items that he feels the city’s notice of preparation (NOP) failed to identify, including issues with land use, zoning and a retaining wall, excessive grading, parking deficiencies, casita lot sizes and many others.
Still others said there were cultural problems with the project.
Mati Waiya of the Chumash tribe said many local construction projects have ignored evidence of “cultural history” (burials and artifacts) when excavating. “When are we going to stop allowing the destruction and disturbance of our culture?” Waiya said. Jo Ruggles, former Planning Commissioner familiar with previous EIRs on this project, said she remembered there are “significant Indian artifacts” on the property.
Although the tone of the meeting was very anti-hotel, project developer Richard Weintraub said at the meeting that many residents have expressed support for the project.
Weintraub, who is also a co-majority owner of the Malibu Lumber Yard shopping center, pitched the project as “the single largest economic generator in the city’s history.”
Weintraub went on to say that he was a local family man who survived the major 1993 wildfire, but things became somewhat heated when residents interrupted his speech to ask how much the casita condos in the project would sell for. Weintraub countered that the project was still locally owned despite several offers, and that he “still has” California Coastal Commission approval for a 300-room hotel.
Former councilmember Jefferson Wagner asked about water storage, and was told a 500,000-gallon tank will be put under the parking garage. Wagner expressed concern, saying smaller projects have put in million-gallon tanks, and that a 3 million-gallon tank was probably needed. Wagner also inquired about a city trail easement designated to go along this piece of property, and EIR consultant Dan Gira said “if it’s in the adopted plans and policies of the city, it’ll be in the EIR.”
Serra Retreat resident Ozzie Silna, speaking for the Serra Canyon Property Owner’s Association, said traffic would be made worse by the hotel and several other large projects currently on the horizon for the Civic Center area. Those projects include a Santa Monica College satellite campus, a proposed expansion of athletic facilities at Pepperdine University and a shopping center with a Whole Foods grocery.
“The impact on Serra Canyon is so significant,” Silna said. “There’s no way out now.”
Resident Steve Uhring said that traffic studies and EIRs for each of the major projects currently pending for the greater Civic Center area—the hotel, the Pepperdine expansion, SMC campus, Whole Foods development, as well as the five-home Crummer subdivision next to Bluffs Park—should be combined, because each affects the others.
Gira responded that the cumulative impacts of these developments would be analyzed in the EIRs, but neither he nor city staff commented on the possibility of combining them.