The proposed Malibu Valley Inn and Spa across from Soka property is envisioned as an upscale timeshare resort featuring a convention center, horse arena, day spa, signature restaurant, winery and meeting center. Neighbors say the concept may be sound, but too dense under its current guise.
By Hans Laetz/Special to The Malibu Times
With a successful 30-year battle over a gateway piece of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area behind them, residents north of Malibu are warily eyeing another big project announced for the rolling oak hills near Mulholland Highway at Malibu Canyon-Los Virgenes Road.
Developers are circulating a 5-inch thick Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Malibu Valley Inn and Spa, a 141-acre housing, equestrian and lifestyle resort that could include 203 timeshare hotel units. The project would sit just across the road from what national park officials call their “crown jewel,” a 588-acre horse ranch at the heart and crossroads of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The National Park Service is about to take ownership of that gem, known as the King Vidor/Gillette Ranch, which was once destined to be a branch campus of Japan’s Soka University. The breakthrough $35 million public purchase of the ranch will allow construction of headquarters and a visitors’ center on the spectacular centerpiece of public parkland, regional trails and mountain wilderness.
And now proposed for just across Mulholland Highway is Malibu Valley Inn and Spa, envisioned as an upscale timeshare resort featuring a convention center, horse arena, day spa, signature restaurant, winery and meeting center. Neighbors say the concept may be sound, but too dense under its current guise.
“This is sort of the equivalent of taking the Soka development, which we fought for 30 years, and moving it across Mulholland Highway,” said John Low, president of the Monte Nido Community Association, in a recent interview.
Although the plot is zoned for 81 houses under the recently approved Los Angeles County North Area Plan, the developer wants the land annexed into the City of Calabasas, which would be given decision-making authority over its rezoning. Sales tax revenue would then be added to money raised by Calabasas’ new auto dealerships and shopping center, Low said.
Access to the resort would be from the unincorporated area of Los Virgenes-at the park service headquarters-and not from within the city. The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors only recently turned aside resort plans and earmarked low-density residential housing for the inn’s site.
The developer is Brian Boudreau, a longtime Calabasas resident who lives on the site at Stokes Canyon Road at Mulholland Highway, east of the Malibu Canyon signal. He is proposing a high-end business that he said will be environmentally progressive, including such amenities as buildings set back from Mulholland Highway, native plant landscaping, recycled construction materials and other attributes aimed at earning a “Green Resort” award from the state.
Boudreau touts a visitor-serving use that complements surrounding trails and the park service headquarters to the south across Mulholland.
“We believe that the Malibu Valley Inn and Spa is a tremendous asset and resource to our community,” he said in a statement introducing the project to Calabasas citizens. “We are trying to create an environment that everyone from the local equestrian to the day-spa visitor can enjoy.”
Calabasas’ EIR estimates nearly 1,900 vehicle trips a day would be added to Malibu Canyon-Los Virgenes Road, one of the four major access routes into Malibu, if the inn is built. The EIR is required under California law to predict what types of problems would be created by the project, and then explain how the developer will correct those problems.
Some residents of Calabasas and the rural county area have already expressed worries that the inn and spa would overcrowd a rural area, jam local horse and hiking trails, and be a traffic clog. The EIR’s estimation of fewer than 1,900 car trips per day seems very low to neighbors like Low.
Low points out that a 38,000 square foot ballroom, a retail winery, large equestrian show area and 203 hotel timeshare rooms might put incredible pressure on Malibu Canyon, Pacific Coast Highway and the Ventura Freeway. “Just think of all those cars on a beach day,” he said. “The entire mountain road network is just about full.”
The EIR predicts that the inn and spa would slightly overburden traffic signals along Malibu Canyon-Los Virgenes Road at two intersections. But it predicts that those traffic problems could be overcome by re-striping and adding turn signals at the Mulholland Highway and Lost Hills Road intersections. The developers would also chip in for the planned overpass widening of Lost Hills Road at the Ventura Freeway.
Residents at a preliminary meeting last fall expressed concerns about a wall of two-story buildings along Mulholland, which is a county-designated scenic corridor. The city’s EIR documents say the heavy screening by trees will not eliminate the building’ impact on the scenic highway or the park visitors center across the road.
But nearby residents in Las Virgenes, Cold and Dry Creek canyons may be split on the project, with some adamantly opposed and some in favor, says Monte Nido’s Low. “Even I would possibly support this type of project if the density were less. It’s good to provide visitor access to these mountains,” he said.
He said canyon residents are hoping the California Coastal Commission might reduce the project’s density to protect the park visitors center and nearby homes. About half of the site is within Coastal Commission jurisdiction.
The EIR next goes before the Calabasas Planning Commission on April 7, 5:30 p.m., at Calabasas City Hall, 26135 Mureau Road.
The entire 2,000-page document file is available on the Internet at www.cityofcalabasas.com, while book versions of it are at the Calabasas City Hall and at the city’s library, 23975 Park Sorrento.