Residents vow to keep fighting the development
of Trancas Country Market if developer Dan Bercu does not meet their demands.
By Sherene Tagharobi / Special to The Malibu Times
After much protest, letter writing and rhetoric, the Planning Commission last week gave the green light to the Trancas Country Market remodel and expansion project. The Aug. 4 vote came after a five-hour public hearing on the proposal two weeks prior, during which the commission said it would postpone the decision until its next meeting, when staff would come back with an amended resolution.
Plans to expand and renovate the shopping center located at Trancas Country Road and Pacific Coast Highway have been in the works for years. Dan Bercu, Malibu resident and Trancas Country Market owner, first notified local residents of his plans in 2007.
The project will add 25,738 square feet of commercial space to the existing shopping center; a new parking lot north of the Chevron gas station; a new public parking lot north of HOW’S supermarket; and an on-site alternative wastewater treatment system. Bercu had originally planned on adding another 11,000 square foot structure on the Riders and Ropers property located east of Trancas Creek, but a zoning inconsistency and lack of community support forced him to withdraw those plans.
After the Planning Commission’s vote last week, opponents reiterated to Bercu their concerns over public safety and the environment, which they feel the project, as is, puts at stake.
“With buses turning around, with kids going up and down on their bikes, pedestrians and dogs, families, two-way traffic going in and out of the shopping center there, to me, it looks like a disaster waiting to happen,” Mark Wetton, a board member of the Malibu West Homeowners’ Association, said.
Others voiced their dissent as well, but the commission had the final say, voting 3-1 in the project’s favor. One commissioner was absent.
The adopted resolution includes conditional use permits for two new restaurants, La Spiagga, an Italian restaurant run by the same restaurateur who operates Tra di Noi, and the Malibu Diner. However, the resolution limits the number of seats the restaurants can have to 220, combined.
After the vote, Bercu said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the future of the project.
“It’s a long road in Malibu,” he said. “I’m trying to avoid appeals by reaching out to homeowners.
“There’s not much more we can give space-wise,” added Bercu, who has already significantly reduced the project’s square footage. “As far as functionality, we’re willing to compromise.”
Wetton said he wants changes that would benefit Malibu West residents.
Bercu agreed to negotiate with Wetton and those who share his reservations.
Wetton would not go into detail about the requests he would discuss with Bercu, but he also mentioned environmental concerns in addition to those of public safety and parking.
He pointed out that, according to a map of the project site by Envicom, an environmental and land-use consulting group, the proposed parking lot north of HOW’S would be on an ESHA setback, and cars would be “driving over tree roots of the ancient sycamore grove.”
Farmers’ market hearing continued
In other action, the Planning Commission continued the hearing of an application by Cornucopia Foundation for a conditional use permit to operate a farmers’ market in the Civic Center Way parking lot in front of Malibu Courthouse and the library.
Raw Inspiration, a nonprofit that runs a number of markets in the Los Angeles area, had submitted a rival application. It is not known whether the city would grant one permit or two, and if the two entities did each receive permits, how that would result in the operation of the markets within the city.
The item was continued to the commission’s Sept. 15 meeting.