Dozens of Malibu residents and commercial landowners lashed out at each other in a bitter, emotional debate over the city’s proposal to regulate chain stores in the Civic Center on Monday night, deepening a divide between locals who want to save “mom and pop” shops in town and landlords who loathe the idea of regulations.
The meeting drew nearly 100 locals, business owners, landlords, attorneys, all pulling the City Council in opposite directions. Before the council ultimately decided to shelve its vote until Oct. 14. and direct city staff to revise provisions of the ordinance and bring back a report on the best way to move forward to create a Civic Center specific plan and design standards in a timely fashion, the five-member council heard a spectrum of arguments for and against the ordinance.
Opinions on the proposal ranged from “imperfect, but a start” to a “disaster” waiting to happen.
Local Rod Bergen pressed the council to kill the ordinance, arguing the city should not interfere with the free enterprise system.
“Stop beating a dead horse and put a dagger in the heart of this beast,” Bergen said.
Many viewed the proposal as a pivotal moment for the City Council to change the course of Malibu’s history by limiting the infiltration of chain businesses in the center of Malibu.
“Are we going to follow what the founding people of the city started with? Or are we going to go down a path that’ll lead us to look like a city like Laguna Beach?” Planning Commissioner Mikke Pierson asked the council.
Resident Remy O’Neill despaired over the changing retail landscape of Malibu, which many believe is now seen as a shopping destination.
“We have now become strangers in our own home, we all feel it,” she said.
Michael Osterman, a 20-year Malibu Chamber of Commerce member who owns the local market PC Greens, called the proposal a “compromise” worthy of passage.
“Four years, four long years we’ve been at this. Don’t squander this chance,” he urged the council. “You must do the right thing. You will decide what the face of Malibu looks like for decades to come.”
Jay Luchs, a part-owner and leasing agent of the Malibu Village Shopping Center, argued that a requirement for chain stores to obtain conditional use permits (CUP) to be considered would lead to shopping center ghost towns.
“The CUP really is death to a city. A CUP means that no tenants will come anymore,” Luchs said. “I’ve talked to many [tenants] about what would happen if there was a CUP or any change, and we’re … lucky we have tenants at all.”
Malibu Country Mart owner Michael Koss blamed Preserve Malibu, a local grassroots group leading the charge for a formula retail ordinance, for the closure of businesses like Missoni, a clothing store, and Silver Threads, a jewelry store.
“The reason is the people in Malibu did not support them,” Koss told the council, garnering the ire of Preserve Malibu members in the audience.
He also accused the group of promoting a boycott of the Civic Center and, in turn, “hurting the small businesses they’re trying to help.”
City Councilwoman Laura Rosenthal scolded Preserve Malibu and commercial landowners for failing to compromise, accusing the groups of vehemently vilifying one another.
“The two loudest sides in this debate have attempted to demonize the other side and make them bad guys,” she said.