In the face of Malibu’s version of what national news outlets from The Atlantic to Fox Business have termed the “retail apocalypse,” city leaders are continuing to plunge full steam ahead into formula retail ordinance restrictions designed to maintain Malibu’s small town character and prevent the oversaturation of national and international retail chains.
Representatives from many of Malibu’s retail centers clashed with slow growth leaders at a special city council meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
Attorney Marshall Camp, representing the embattled (and now well underway) Whole Foods project, went so far as to say the proposed ordinance “would already be the most restrictive formula retail ordinance in the United States that we are aware of.”
On the table was the issue of how to replace Measure R, the once-popular citywide ordinance, which won close to 60 percent of votes in November 2014. Measure R was later legally challenged by developers and found to be illegal last year.
“We’ve done this for 10 years, as I heard [City Attorney] Christi Hogin saying, and the only thing I see different today than when this began when the Lumber Yard was new … was the internet has really changed the world we live in,” leasing agent Jay Luchs told council Wednesday. Luchs alluded to the struggles he has had finding tenants to fill the former Granita space at the Malibu Colony Plaza, which he confirmed would be subdivided into two smaller restaurants after sitting empty for 12 years.
Patt Healy, representing the Malibu Coalition for Slow Growth, also acknowledged that the retail world is changing faster than Malibu’s ordinances can keep up.
“The trend in formula retail is to have small stores where people can see the merchandise and then order it online,” she said. “In fact, chains are leaving Malibu without even a regulating ordinance in place.” Healy made it clear this phenomenon did not mean Malibu should turn its back on imposing new regulations.
Healy urged council to impose limitations originally outlined in Measure R.
“People do not come to Malibu to visit the chains. They can shop them at home,” Healy said. “They want to visit the small independent shops and restaurants and have a unique experience, and that is what the majority of voters in Malibu want also, so please honor the wishes of the voters.”
Planning Commissioner (and longtime Measure R supporter) John Mazza described the retail scene in Malibu in years past, using Prada as an example of a brand few in town desired.
“They tried to create destination shopping and that’s what we don’t want,” Mazza said.
What final form the new chain store ordinance will take is still anyone’s guess. Key talking points were extremely specific—including questions about placement of signs, square footage allowance, how to calculate percentages of formula retail and placement of chain stores within shopping centers. One key aspect would be only enacting limitations within shopping centers, meaning individual shops along PCH would be free from the restrictions. This mirrors restrictions enacted in Measure R.
In the end, council said it needed more time to wade through the ins and outs of the new ordinance. Council Member Lou La Monte complained at one point about discussions going too in-depth and missing the big picture.
“We need an overview, and I think we’re doing this on a verbiage basis,” La Monte said.
The need for more time to craft the ordinance was about the only clear message that came out of last Wednesday’s prolonged special City Council meeting.
“I think the community has spoken and it seems clear to me the community wants restrictions in place,” Mayor Skylar Peak (who attended the meeting via Skype from Hawaii) said. “This is their community. This is one of the tools the city has to do that.”
After over a decade of debate, two failed ordinances and more than three hours of discussion, the conversation is not over yet. Council is set to discuss the issue once more at its meeting on Feb. 12.