“You want pedestrian paths; we want pedestrian paths. You want wetlands; we want wetlands …”
With those words, Don Schmitz, consultant for the proposed Civic Center La Paz retail project, was demonstrating how his clients planned to include popular features to lubricate governmental gears and streamline the development process.
The remark was made on Dec. 5 at a special City Council meeting to provide landowners and government officials with a first-time look at developers’ ideas and plans for more than 140 prime acres in the heart of Malibu. Changes to these key Civic Center properties mean big money for business, and possibly even the city, but they also have the potential to alter Malibu’s appearance and character forever.
And so, well-oiled tones of supplication echoed throughout the evening as property owners’ reps tailored project styles to public tastes.
Referring to the evening’s five development presentations as “a fire bell in the night,” Councilmember Kenneth Kearsley told the 50 people who attended, “What people have to realize is that something’s going to be built here … and we had better have our hand in that change.”
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky invited slow-growth preservationists to float a bond issue to buy the land: “That is the only legal way to stop them from going forward if they don’t ask for a variance,” she said, adding, “We have some real issues.”
Because a previous council rejected an area specific plan, there is nothing to guide landowners as they move forward with separate projects.
This meeting was an historic first, an unveiling that also gave councilmembers and staff a forum for their own suggestions.
City staff and councilmembers’ recommendations were varied: Among local needs is a city hall, said Jeffrey Jennings, explaining that the Sheriff’s Department plans to reclaim office space the city has been leasing for governmental usage.
Planning Director Barry Hogan drew out the city engineer’s water infrastructure plans and said the area also should be a flood control and flood retention site for “the 100-year storm.”
Councilmembers wanted a common theme to unite the projects and they asked that they be “on a human scale.” Their deck of cards also contained a wish-list including pedestrian pathways, riparian landscaping, a water concept, a ballfield, an urgent care project, hitching posts for horses, and low-cost housing.
But several developers hedged, giving the council a choice of two plans. And most had stuffed aces up their sleeves by incorporating wish-list items of their own into their proposals. There were no duplicate aces.
City Manager Christi Hogin suggested fulfilling civic needs by establishing an overlay zone and using a general-use permit to guarantee inclusion of features on a proposed-use list.
Some developers already were sounding as though they were laying their cards on the table.
“Keep in mind we have a variance-free project,” said Schmitz, describing the 126,000 square feet of commercial space planned for 18.5 acres east of City Hall. He cited an exemplary water treatment plan, then added that “it would not be too proud to suggest that this would become the Village Center for the city.”
An alternative plan included a Civic Center with a “grotto theme with waters flowing out and a series of waterfalls,” and, as a dramatic element, perched on the top of one knoll, a 5,000-square-foot civic hearing room where activists could protest further developments.
“We thought about the Chumash Indians, the movie industry, the Rindge family, the ranches, the Adamson House, the fights we’ve had, and the thing we came up with that is universal through all those periods, is that Malibu is where the mountains meet the sea,” he said, describing the process of creation.
Other developments include a grocery store, a 500-seat theater, a 3,000-square-foot community building, and play areas on Malibu Bay’s “Chili Cook-off” site. Also included were a Schultz family-owned retail development that architect Ron Goldman described as “garden wall architecture,” Pepperdine’s 138-unit senior living project and a 15,000-to-20,000-square foot city senior center, plus an optional urgent care facility, and the Yamaguchi family’s 16-acre project, including a ballfield and 37 houses of up to 3,000 square feet each.
Public comments included input from Goldman, who called the collective focus “conceptually wrong,” saying it glorifies cars by putting Civic Center Way at its heart instead of an open space with a small town and country centers spilling into both sides.
“It’s scary to be in this room,” said Tami Clark of the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy, adding that the additional 800,000 square feet of office space suggested triples the 200,000 square feet needed by a community of Malibu’s size.
Kevin Driscoll, regional director of Malibu AYSO, pointed to a serious lack of play areas, but said, “There is no other way to get fields than through trades with developers.”