Last week’s decision by the City of Malibu to require a complete environmental study for the proposed PCH widening at Malibu Lagoon is very important. Remember, in 2008, an earlier city planner and city council gave this a green light without any environmental impact report. Incredibly, just 14 months ago, La Paz and its road-widening permit were given a discretionary two-year extension by the City.
All the Civic Center commercial projects are affected by last week’s decision. The now-moribund Rancho Malibu proposal had piggybacked onto this traffic plan. So did Steve Soboroff and his “Whole Foods in the Park” supermarket plan (I love the unintentionally hilarious title). These developers and others all wanted to shift PCH south into Malibu Lagoon State Park to make room for their right turn lane, which they must install or they cannot build. Now, this city action will prevent that.
It’s obvious that the right turn lane is needed at Cross Creek, and it is also obvious that this turn lane needs to be on the right side of the westbound road at the Shell station, which sits partly on Caltrans land. The commercial landowners at the Civic Center need an assessment district to pay for PCH widening where it belongs, and not in the State Park across the street.
It’s not the sewer that would block the commercial development; the sewer is coming anyway because of the state order. It’s the traffic issue where we have local control. The City of Malibu is required, under its own rules, to say no to development that snarls traffic.
Thanks to the hard work of people here 22 years ago, Malibu has the toughest planning rules in the state. And California Environmental Quality Act is also very powerful. The commercial landowners have a right to build their projects, within those strict rules. Finally, City Hall is saying “no exceptions.”
Hans Laetz