The city proposes environmental friendly building incentives. In other building matters, the council will consider a Local Coastal Program amendment that would allow billionaire Larry Ellison to rebuild on the Windsail site.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
People planning to build or remodel a home in Malibu could soon have an incentive to make the residence environmentally friendly. The Malibu Planning Division will present a proposal at Monday’s City Council meeting for waving certain permit fees if the homes are built with protecting Mother Earth in mind.
City staff has come up with three proposals: to waive building permit fees for photovoltaic and solar panel additions; to forgo coastal development permit fees for single-family homes that meet the standards of a rating system created by the nonprofit group U.S. Green Building Council; and to train certain city staff members so they are familiar with building techniques to meet the Building Council’s qualifications.
The Building Council has a rating system it calls Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. Homes must meet a certain criterion to get what is called LEED certification, and to have permit fees waived under the city staff’s proposal. Among the items included in the rating system are the design of the home, the air quality, energy and water efficiency and the awareness of the homeowner or tenant about the “green” features of the home.
The council will not be voting on these proposals at its next meeting, but is expected to give city staff direction on whether it would like to pursue establishing the policies. The proposals came about after the council asked city staff last fall to come back with ideas on how to create incentives for people to build environmentally friendly homes.
Can Ellison build?
The council will also consider at its Monday meeting a Local Coastal Program amendment to allow billionaire Larry Ellison to change the zoning of the former Windsail Restaurant property so he can go ahead with plans to build a new Japanese restaurant there. Ellison already received approval for the building permit last month from the Planning Commission, at which time he also got the nod for the building of a new restaurant on the neighboring PierView Café site. The LCP amendment is required because the Windsail property, under the LCP, is zoned for homes. The LCP designation is in conflict with the city’s General Plan, which has the property zoned for visitor-serving commercial use. The California Coastal Commission has the final say on an LCP amendment.
The permitting for the PierView property was finalized with Planning Commission approval. Those who pass by the property on Pacific Coast Highway near the Malibu Pier can observe the preliminary development at the site. The existing structure will eventually be demolished. That is also the plan for the Windsail building.
The projects include building a 5,900-square-foot restaurant on the property where the former Windsail eatery sits. A 7,100-square-foot restaurant will be built on the PierView Café site. The two facilities will not be connected. Both proposals are for restaurant buildings smaller than the structures currently on the properties.
The hours of operation for the two restaurants will be from 11 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. They will contain indoor and outdoor dining as well as bars. No live music will be allowed at the facilities, nor will there be outdoor amplifiers.
Architect Scott Mitchell said last month that if all goes well, the new restaurants could open by the summer of 2008.