It is disappointing that Patt Healy, with whom I worked so closely to defeat the Civic Center Guidelines because they would have increased commercial development in the Civic Center, is blinded by enviro ideology and supports the Coastal Commission’s LCP, as it is the greatest pro-development Land Use Plan this city has ever seen.
The commission’s LCP states, “The overarching goal and intent of the Land Use Plan is for the enhancement of public access and recreation opportunities” with repeated references to the goal of providing “visitor serving recreational and commercial uses such as hotels and motels” for the people of the state. The commission is so single-minded in its goal of getting the maximum number of tourists into Malibu it’s completely changed our commercial zoning code to facilitate rampant, high density development to achieve this end.
The commission’s LCP says that visitor serving uses such as hotels, theaters and restaurants must be allowed in every commercial zone, whereas the city currently has the discretion to allow them only in areas where they will not negatively impact the community. Visitor-serving uses mandated across the 100-plus acres of the Civic Center will generate far more traffic than Malibu can sustain. In comparison to office use, restaurants require five-times the parking, and theaters ten-times the parking. The commission is so determined to make Malibu a center for tourism that their “Table of Permitted Uses” only allows restaurants “if exceeding interior occupancy of 125 persons” in the Civic Center because they do not consider smaller restaurants “visitor-serving.”
To encourage maximum development in the Civic Center and facilitate larger retail building footprints, the commission has completely slashed commercial parking requirements. The plan reduces the area required for parking from 312 to 180 square feet per space, with an added allowance of 20 percent compact spaces at 124 square feet each and a whopping 25 percent reduction in the total parking required “when a parking lot with common access and joint use is provided.” These reductions are radical deviations from standard planning guidelines and our current laws, all for the benefit of commercial developers.
As the ultimate gift to giant developers, the Coastal Commission’s LCP encourages the city to build a city-wide “sewer system” and assessment district where that would be the “environmentally superior alternative.” It is amazing that Patt Healy and Marcia Hanscom of the Sierra Club are on a perpetual warpath against Jerry Perenchio and the Malibu Bay Company, while remaining silent as the Coastal Commission prepares to turn Malibu into the largest tourist center on the California coast. Ideology and political partisanship should not be a guide to our evaluation of a plan, which when you read the actual text, contains hundreds of environmentally damaging and unbelievable laws that will devastate our quality of life.
Anne Hoffman
Head in the clouds
ESHAs were designated by the Coastal Commission by flying over the Point Dume area, and anything that wasn’t flat became an ESHA (environmentally sensitive habitat area). In one case, two restaurants and an office building were designated as an ESHA because, from the plane, they couldn’t see the buildings through the trees. The address is 29350 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, 90265. These people are not qualified to designate ESHAs.
In 1946, Point Dume was subdivided into 1/2- and 1-1/2-acre building lots, a well thought-out subdivision of building lots. The California Coastal Commission, consisting of 12 members (11 do not live in Malibu), is now dictating how the City of Malibu should govern the future of the land use for our city.
Finally, within the last two days, possibly from the organized efforts of the first grade students at the Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School and their appeal to the Coastal Commission to include in the LCP some vague wording referring to our sensitive marine habitats. See front page, The Malibu Times, July 4, 2002.
Gov. Davis, Assemblymember Fran Pavley and Sen. Sheila Kuehl and whoever else has any political influence, please give these 12 commissioners some guidance and something else to do besides setting the state up for massive law suits, which ultimately are financed by the taxpayer.
Tom Moore