With a resounding 5 to 0 vote, the City Council has approved a Phase 1 of the Malibu 2020 Vision that is designed to have the vast majority of citizens of Malibu set directions for the City for the next 20 years. A big undertaking? Of course, but also big payoffs for those who live here now and for future residents. Can Malibu become better? A small group of determined organizers of this effort would like to find out if their fellow citizens believe it can.
The Malibu 2020 Vision Project is inspired by the successes of similar efforts in Carmel, Carlsbad, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Ventura and Santa Barbara. The project will seek to reach out and involve Malibu residents individually and as a community and ensure the input of the city’s various geographic regions and the range of interests within the city. The objective is to invite Malibuites to address issues likely to be of concern to the city and to elicit their ideas on priorities, trade-offs, and solutions. The output grounded in empirical data and reflecting the community consensus could serve a strategic roadmap for the City Council and citizens in tackling emerging challenges and improving the quality of life in Malibu. To do this Malibu badly needs: A comprehensive view of Malibu now and Malibu in the future; an achievable action oriented roadmap for the future based upon broad citizen participation; the involvement of new people in the civic process to expand the range of people participating in city government.
Also, change in public dialogue and civil discourse through educational programs and “Town Hall” style meetings dealing with high visibility issues. This will be an opportunity for citizens to view the “gray” area of issues facing the community; a citizen driven project with pro bono participation by Malibu citizens contributing their respective knowledge, skills and experience, resulting in substantial cost savings for the city; ability to influence the future and ever increasing pressures caused by commercialism, multi-day tourism, traffic, blue and green belt conservation, schools growth and recreation development; powerful advertising, brochures, reports and CD’s for broad public distribution based upon the “Best Practices” and lessons learned from other cities; City Council and Staff participation at a reasonable and affordable level.
In the absence of a clear vision, let’s examine some memorable benchmarks that have formed Malibu’s history over the past 40 years. If Malibu had such a vision process in the last 40 years, how would these significant issues have been decided? Lot zoning, no atomic power plant, Pepperdine University, no freeway/causeway, no sewers, Cityhood, rebuilding the pier, runaway traffic congestion. troubling LCP by the Coastal Commission, Malibu Bay Company Development proposal
Would we have wanted all this? Maybe some, probably not others. But to seize the future we must act now because there will be equally difficult issues in the future. To delay is to allow others to set direction and seize it for us. I don’t think we want this.
Rich Davis, member
Malibu 2020 Vision Organizing Team