One Malibu city council member is upset and accuses colleagues of a lack of foresight by passing on the property.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
A 9.8-acre piece of land on Pacific Coast Highway across from Point Dume Village considered by the Malibu City Council as a potential site for a park was sold last week to real estate mogul Donald Sterling. Property owner Zan Marquis notified city officials of the purchase in an e-mail last week.
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich had campaigned for the city to purchase the property. Ulich suggested at the council’s Feb. 2 meeting that the city use funds from its reserve fund to purchase the property in order to build ball fields and a skate park. But her colleagues disagreed, citing the need to save money in a weak economy.
Ulich continued to advocate for the purchase of the property, but Marquis informed City Manager Jim Thorsen and Planning Division Manager Joyce Parker-Bozylinski in an e-mail dated May 11 that the property had closed escrow that day and he had sold it to Sterling.
“I’m sorry we were unable to come to terms regarding this property,” Marquis wrote.
The city’s zoning committee turned down an application by Marquis in December to rezone the property from residential to commercial use so he could build a parking lot for the Point Dume Village shopping center. The proposal was to create 30 to 100 new parking spaces at the site, which is located across, and north, from the Village on Pacific Coast Highway. Marquis wanted additional parking in order to alleviate over burdened parking at the Village, located on Pacific Coast Highway and Heathercliff Road.
Although the main reason a conditional use permit was not approved was due to zoning issues, other possible problems were also considered, which included negative impacts to traffic and safety on Pacific Coast Highway. City officials worried that pedestrians crossing from the parking lot to the shopping center would be dangerous, as the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Heathercliff road has been the site of several fatalities and accidents
Talk then turned to the possibility of the city purchasing the property for a park, but that does not appear likely with the sale to Sterling. Sterling, who owns the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, also purchased a six-acre site adjacent to the property that is the site of the Vital Zuman Organic Farm in December. The property had gone into foreclosure, and Sterling bought it for $2.35 million.
“I’m very disappointed the City Council didn’t have the foresight to purchase this priceless property,” Ulich told The Malibu Times last Thursday.
Councilmember Lou La Monte, who had opposed using reserve funds to purchase the property, disagreed.
“I think we showed a tremendous amount of foresight about the future, and the economic situation the entire state is in at the moment,” La Monte said.
Ulich told The Malibu Times that she did not believe Sterling would be receptive to future attempts by the city to purchase the property. Sterling did not return telephone calls from The Malibu Times seeking comment on the matter.