Despite faulty numbers, Malibu officials adopted the city’s 2008-2014 Housing Element Update in a 4-1 vote on Monday, with Councilman Lou La Monte the lone vote against the update, which isn’t expected to lead to any new development.
La Monte slammed the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) for requiring Malibu to rezone parts of the city to accommodate 441 units of affordable housing, saying the number was obscenely high for the small town.
“I can’t go along with this charade any longer,” La Monte said.
City planning staff has spent more than two years rezoning properties to meet the 441 unit requirement, an inaccurate calculation, officials said, because employees of Pepperdine University were mistakenly included in the City of Malibu’s population projection. Pepperdine is located outside of city limits.
The city was still required to bring its zoning map into conformance, however, in order to comply with state zoning regulations.
For the next planning cycle, the number is expected to drop substantially. Populations for the 2014-2021 planning period made by SCAG showed that Malibu needed to prove it could provide just one low-income and one very-low income housing unit.
The 2008-2014 update makes it “feasible” for Malibu to accommodate 441 low-income housing units, but will not lead to any new development, Mayor Pro Tem Skylar Peak explained.
Mayor Joan House understood La Monte’s frustration but said the council had no choice but to pass the update.
“I think the key word here is ‘mandated,’” House said. “We were thrown in with Pepperdine… no one’s happy with it, but we don’t have a choice.”