At the Malibu Township Council Forum, both incumbent Sharon Barovsky and candidate Andy Stern said they supported the commercial development build-out for Malibu listed in the City’s General Plan, adopted on a 4-1 vote in 1995. I was the one “no” vote.
Also, a Sharon Barovsky recent mailer claims a “small minority” of voters prefer, and I quote “high-density projects” in exchange for community amenities, as though it was ours to give bonus amenities when, in fact, she helped write these bonus amenities as options for the developers and Council to use.
For the record, Sharon Barovsky served as a member of the City’s General Plan Task Force from 1992-94, that created the General Plan for approval by the City Council. For the record, the City’s General Plan permits up to 1,300,000 square feet of new commercial development in the Malibu Civic Center, another 124,000 square feet of new commercial development at Point Dume along PCH and another 80,000 square feet of new commercial development at Trancas, all based on giving public amenities.
For the record, incumbent Sharon Barovsky also served in 1996-97 on the City’s Civic Center Specific Plan Advisory Committee, which recommended that new commercial build-out in the Malibu Civic Center be permitted up to 1,000,000 square feet and did not include up to an additional 290,000 square feet based on 13 public amenities being available to them. The City Council took no action at that time.
For the record, both Sharon Barovsky and her husband, Harry, supported the building of the 180,000 square foot Adamson Hotel at PCH and Malibu Canyon Road. The debate at the City Council in 1997-98 was not over whether or not to approve the hotel, but over how many rooms the hotel should have.
For the record, incumbent Sharon Barovsky voted along with a unanimous City Council, in August 2000, to send the proposed Malibu Bay Company development agreement out for an Environmental Impact Report, the first step necessary to approve the agreement. Also, for the record, Bond Measure K only received 1,600 votes out of 9,000 registered voters in Malibu’s lowest voter turnout election ever. Hardly the “majority” mandate Sharon Barovsky and Andy Stern are spinning it to be. In point of fact, no one has advocated a “higher density” development for Malibu than has Sharon Barovsky as a voting member of the General Plan Task Force, Civic Center Specific Plan Advisory Committee and City Council member. Sharon Barovsky is in no position to be calling any of her opponents pro-development.
John Harlow