Residents, city leaders hold town hall meeting to discuss potential bond measure to buy vacant commercial-zoned property in central Malibu and preserve it as open space.
By Melissa Caskey / The Malibu Times
Community members in a town hall meeting last week began the first tentative exploration of ways to preserve the remaining vacant commercial-zoned land in the Civic Center as open space. City Councilmember Joan House acknowledged the talks could ultimately result in a measure being placed on a future ballot to buy the vacant land with public money.
There has been much recent concern in the community about several major commercial developments that have been proposed in the Civic Center, which many feel goes against Malibu’s rural character.
Five major projects are currently undergoing the environmental review process, and are likely to go before the city planning commission within the next year. The projects include the Rancho Malibu Hotel project, the Whole Foods in the Park development, the Malibu Bay Company’s Malibu Sycamore Village development, a Santa Monica College satellite campus and sheriff’s substation, and a luxury subdivision next to Bluffs Park.
Amid this backdrop, Mayor Laura Rosenthal and City Councilmember Joan House called the meeting to potentially explore placing a bond or other public funding measure to purchase undeveloped commercial-zoned property in the Civic Center in order to preserve it for open space. Approximately 50 people attended the two-hour meeting at City Hall.
“What we really want to encourage is thinking outside the box,” Rosenthal said.
Among various concerns, attendees were curious as to how the city would fund the purchase of the property. Ideas set forth included passing a bond measure, as well as asking landowners to donate property to the city. House was uncertain of the best method to go about obtaining property.
“[A bond is] one of the options on the table and I think the important thing is to investigate and pursue any idea if it’s doable. It’s better to have a lot of ideas than no ideas,” House said.
The potential cost of such a measure was not discussed at the meeting, although there are clues.
For starters, not including the five proposed developments, there are currently 47.87 acres of remaining vacant commercial-zoned property in the Civic Center area, according to data from the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office.
The per-acre value of commercial-zoned properties in the Civic Center fluctuates widely based on market conditions, as well as whether the property has acquired building entitlements and environmental approvals.
But in one example, the city purchased the 20-acre parcel known as the Chili Cookoff site from Malibu Bay Company in 2006 for $25 million, for an average of about $1.25 million per acre. Experts The Malibu Times spoke to said that deal was something of a steal, but using that per-acre value as an example, and not factoring in inflation, the minimum amount needed to be raised by a bond measure would be at least $59.8 million. The actual amount would likely be far higher.
That valuation also does not take into consideration the potential purchase of some of the properties currently undergoing environmental review, such as Whole Foods in the Park, Malibu Sycamore Village and the Rancho Malibu Hotel, as well as properties that already have expensive entitlements such as the La Paz property. The cost in that scenario would likely rise much higher.
Another factor to consider would be whether commercial property owners in the Civic Center would dramatically raise their prices in negotiation with the city if a bond measure passed and landowners knew the city would have to buy the property to satisfy constituents.
Tony Dorn, a commercial property realtor in Malibu, said he did not think that would be a major problem. Dorn added that the wastewater treatment facility slated for construction in the Civic Center by 2015 was stabilizing prices.
“I think they’re already helping establish a real value because in past years, evaluating commercial properties in the Civic Center is speculative at best,” Dorn said. “With [an agreement to build a sewer] in place, values are getting established.”
Upon listening to the large scope of ideas brewing among residents and Civic Center property owners, Rosenthal and House created seven volunteer subcommittees to research different aspects of the Civic Center issue. The subcommittees will study subjects such as bond, tax and revenue research, funding mechanisms, charitable trusts and land availability in the Civic Center, among others.
The seven subcommittees will collect research on each of the seven topics and present their results at the committee’s next meeting.
Rosenthal promised to create some type of online forum for subcommittee members to delegate and communicate with each other during the research process. She said she is still working with the city’s information technology department to create a proper forum.
The ad hoc committee will hold its next meeting Aug. 14, during which each subcommittee will present its research.