Councilmember who is against privatizing road, says she doesn’t want ‘balkanization of Malibu.’
By Jonathan Friedman/Special to The Malibu Times
The City Council’s first meeting in its new chambers was not a lucky start for the residents of the lower end of Zumirez Drive. They came out in force to Monday’s meeting, but were unable to persuade most of the council that the part of the Point Dume cul-de-sac road south of Wildlife Avenue urgently needs to be privatized.
By a vote of 3-2, the council sent the issue to the Public Safety Commission, which will return a recommendation. But it is unlikely the council would approve the privatization, unless it can be guaranteed it will not lead to a gated area.
Lower Zumirez residents said that privatization is the only way to ensure the continuation of its rural atmosphere. Several of them talked to the council about the area’s charm, with many having lived there for 10 years or more. John Mazza, who along with Robert Adler has been a leader in the privatization movement, told the council why he enjoys living on Zumirez.
“We have sheep, dogs, chickens, horses,” he said. “We’re still rural. What we’re really here for tonight is to ask you to let us remain the way we are.”
The residents also want Zumirez privatized so they can take control of its maintenance. But they stressed nothing would be done to restrict access by people who did not live there. Additionally, Adler said privatization would ensure that the street would remain nonparking and a sidewalk would not be built, something he fears the Coastal Commission could do if the road remains public.
“It is the first entrance to Point Dume, and there is nothing more appealing to a certain state agency than making every street in Point Dume public parking. Our street is too narrow for this.”
Mayor Jeff Jennings said that was not necessarily a problem. He said the council could overturn a Coastal Commission decision to make a road open for public parking, if it found that it would have detrimental effects. Jennings said the other reasons Zumirez residents had for wanting privatization were also unpersuasive, pointing out that the residents could take over street maintenance if they desired anyway, and he said that he had heard of no plans to install streetlights and sidewalks on the street as some of the residents said they feared may happen. Councilmember Sharon Barovsky pointed out that privatization did not guarantee that Zumirez’s rural lifestyle would remain untouched.
“Privatizing the road does not change the zoning and it doesn’t change the building,” she said. “So if someone wants to tear an old house down and build a big house, if they can do it under the existing laws, privatizing the road is not going to stop that.”
But Barovsky said she feared that if the road were privatized, it could lead to a gated area. Although she said she believed the current residents had no intention of doing this, there was nothing to prevent future ones from doing it. And she said this could lead down a slippery slope, turning Malibu into a much different city
“I don’t want to see the balkanization of Malibu, where everybody gets in their little enclave behind a gate, shuts the door, says ‘stay out,’ and nobody can even take a one-mile walk, because they will keep running into gates,” she said.
Barovsky said she would not feel comfortable granting the residents’ request unless an ordinance were passed that banned gating off private streets. The council asked city staff to come up with a proposed ordinance for its April 30 quarterly meeting. Mayor Pro Tem Ken Kearsley encouraged the residents to help support the ordinance, since there will be an opposition.
Councilmember Andy Stern was the only one who said he wanted to grant the privatization. He said he couldn’t imagine much changing for people if the residents were given control of the street, since nonresidents could still use it for walking, driving or bicycle riding. He also said he was against turning the decision over to the Public Safety Commission, fearing it would only turn things into a mess. Although Jennings also voted against bringing the issue to the commission, he was against granting the privatization.