Last Monday, June 17, I attended the planning commission meeting hoping to hear of lots of new permits being issued for fire rebuilds. There was only one new permit for a full rebuild granted in the last two weeks. It wasn’t a total loss, as I learned that the city has now published a date for the end of expedited fire rebuild permitting. You now have 16 months to get into the process. November 2020 will be here sooner than you expect, so get moving on your application for your previous home plus 10 percent.
The politics of envy
Last Friday, the city posted the agenda for the planning commission meeting for July 1. I was finally able to download the Total Development Square Footage Reduction Ordinance. You can download your copy from the city’s agenda center on MalibuCity.org. Expect 53 pages—of which the first 22 are the actual ordinance and the remaining 30 or so pages are comments received from members of the public.
One of the comments was a copy of an eblast I sent out to over 2,000 Malibu residents titled “Malibu Property Owners … Bring out Your Torches and Pitchforks” with a wonderful cartoon of the villagers from a Frankenstein movie. If you would like a copy, email me—Paul@MalibuRE.com—and I’ll send you one.
The agenda package contains the ordinance as requested by the city council that results in a reduction of permissible square feet by 25 to 43 percent across the board. Cleverly, the planning department also gave a second option of foregoing the 25 percent percent added on by Rick Mullen as it will be complicated and contentious to apply. To further peel off our “unity in opposition,” planning suggests that the ordinance should only apply to homes on an acre or more with RR (rural residential) zoning. There is no third option suggested of leaving things as they are.
This proposed ordinance encourages us all to break the 10th Commandment. It institutionalizes the envy consuming certain members of the city council. Malibu is a tough town to live in if you can’t accept the proposition that we are all different and everyone has the right to live their own life, as long as they don’t infringe on their neighbors.
Next Monday, July 1, is the planning commission taking the first pass at this ordinance. Please show up at 6:30 and fill out a speaker slip even if you just want to contribute your time to one of your neighbors. I can promise a festive atmosphere.