Offer forbids construction of an educational facility.
By Jonathan Friedman/Assistant Editor
Malibu Bay Co. has added two major restrictions to its offer to sell the Chili Cook-Off site to the city of Malibu for $25 million. The city cannot put an educational facility on the site, most likely eliminating the possibly of Santa Monica College Measure S bond money being used for the purchase. Also, Malibu cannot sell the three commercial structures on the site once it obtains ownership of the property.
These restrictions were included in a letter sent to City Attorney Christi Hogin from Malibu Bay on Dec. 22, and made public last week. It is an update to a sales terms sheet that was issued by the company in August. Malibu Bay attorney Dick Volpert said, in a telephone interview Monday, that this was the company’s final offer.
When the SMC bond measure campaign began in the summer, many proponents said this was a chance to obtain money for a Chili Cook-Off site purchase. As the campaign continued, and more Malibu private landowners began to offer to sell their properties to the city, the campaign began to focus less specifically on the Chili Cook-Off site and more on the wide range of possibilities for the $25 million that would be made available for Malibu projects through the bond measure’s passage. With Malibu Bay adding the restriction on putting an educational facility on the property, SMC would most likely not support using any of the bond money toward the Chili Cook-Off site purchase.
This means the city will need to raise the money to buy the Chili Cook-Off site through grants and private donations. Some people had proposed that the city sell the three structures on the Chili Cook-Off site-Malibu Lumber, Coldwell Banker and Malibu Animal Hospital-to acquire some of the money to buy the site itself. But that plan must be nixed because of a line in the new terms sheet that states, “The site shall be owned in perpetuity by the city of Malibu.” Hogin said that the line meant the city could not sell the individual properties.
All the major features of the August terms sheet remain in the updated version. This includes that the city has until Dec. 31 to come up with the money and that Malibu Bay could sell the property to another buyer if made an offer of more than $25 million. Also, the city cannot build anything on the property other than a water treatment facility, although it can replace the buildings as long as the new structures do not exceed certain height and square footage requirements. If the city builds a water treatment facility on the property, it must allow Malibu Bay to hook up all of its properties to the facility. No more than one acre of the Chili Cook-Off site could be used for parking spaces. Planning Manager Mike Teruya said this provides for about 80 to 100 spaces.
Additionally, the terms sheet states the Chili Cook-Off site “shall not be used for picnic facilities or for athletic fields or facilities for sporting activities of any kind, including but not limited to jogging, soccer, baseball, football, tennis or basketball.”
Hogin said there has not been any discussion on how those rules would be enforced. She said that would be included in a final contract that would be drafted if the city were to come up with the money and be ready for a purchase.
“At this point, we are just taking it [terms] at face value,” Hogin said. “Obviously they [terms] are going to be fleshed out into an enforceable agreement between the parties. These aren’t negotiated terms at all. These are the Bay Company’s words. I’m assuming that no one expects us to tell somebody they’re walking too fast and they reached an illegal jogging speed.”
Hogin reiterated that “this is not a normal situation of someone wanting to buy the property and someone wanting to sell it.” She said it is instead a situation in which Malibu Bay has refused to sell the property several times after being asked by the city, and then finally agreeing to do it with a list of terms. Volpert stated in the cover letter for the August terms sheet that “our client has not expressed any interest in selling the property at this time. However, as an accommodation to the city and its articulated need to create water quality and wastewater/stormwater facilities in the Civic Center, the owner would be willing to sell the property to the city only for that purpose.”
Steve Uhring and Ozzie Silna of the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy have expressed a desire for the water treatment facility to not be built on the Chili Cook-Off site, because they say it would destroy the chance of a wetlands park from being built on the site. They have suggested the facility would be better placed on properties offered by other landowners to the city for sale, such as the Yamaguchi Family Trust (two properties totaling 17 acres that are located near City Hall and the Malibu Knolls residential area) or Pepperdine University (a 9.2-acre site located behind the old City Hall on Civic Center Way).
The MCLC has promised to raise $15 million toward the municipal purchase of the Chili Cook-Off site. Last week, a committee formed by the MCLC of business leaders, scientists and fundraisers met for the first time to address this issue.