Plan B for school separation … might be to write a constitution for the City of Malibu.
Have Nobu and Soho House come up with a solution for their parking problem on PCH???
Plans for widening the 101 around Malibu are years off … that means more traffic on P C H.
This is Malibu’s only local daily news.
It’s the Friday edition of the news … from Radio Malibu …. 97 point 5 K B U.
Good morning Via Acero!
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Advocates for splitting Malibu out of the Santa Monica dominated school district have hit upon a new legal plan … they are calling it plan B.
The problem is this: Santa Monica interests do not want to let Malibu go … because Malibu’s rich property tax revenues are a cash cow for Santa Monica schools.
A quirk in state law allows the City of Santa Monica to partially control the decision … because Santa Monica is a charter city … and its charter says it controls the school district.
Think of a city charter as a municipal constitution.
Malibu is -not- a charter city … it is a different kind of city called a general law city.
For now.
If Malibu were to become a charter city … and the new city charter said Malibu was entitled to district elections for the school board … it would place Malibu’s charter and Santa Monica’s charter in opposition to each other.
That would throw the whole matter into the court system … according to city attorney Christi Hogin.
It could also give Malibu a stronger bargaining position as discussions continue about splitting Malibu out of the Santa Monica school system.
Creating a charter for the City of Malibu would have other political implications …. as well.
It would mean writing what is in effect a city constitution.
The idea of making Malibu a charter city goes before the city council one week from Monday night.
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Also … on the agenda for that Monday night August 27th … the tricky issue of neighborhood character.
The question strikes to the heart of Malibu … and the “mansionization” of the city.
Some landowners want to build their houses up to the largest legally permissible on their lots … even if that means the house is much bigger than all the others in the neighborhood.
Critics say that devalues their property values … because their houses are now valuable only as teardowns.
And … neighborhoods are being transformed into walled off mansions … instead of the open rural character of Malibu.
It’s a big issue …and the whole planning process has been thrown into disarray oer a recent city council decision to downsize a house on Via Acera … near Kanan Dume Road … a house that met zoning rules but was still held to be just too big beyond neighborhood character.
The issue goes up for discussion at the city council meeting …
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This Monday … after the eclipse … the Malibu Planning Commission will meet.
On the agenda … the parking and traffic problems at Soho House and the Nobu restaurant.
The city has told Nobu that it might get its operating permits yanked if it continues to overload P C H with parked cars.
Nobu also had to remove more than 120 seats from its service area … after it had illegally added tent areas and expanded its allowed 222 seats by 58 percent …. to 342 seats.
Nobu and its neighbor …. Soho House …. have been infuriating their neighbors with employees parking all day and all night in front of their homes on P C H.
The two businesses say they are striving to comply with city requirements.
Soho and Nobu have secured parking at an office building across P C H for its employees.
The matter goes before the planning commission Monday.
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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu … 97 point 5 … K-B-U. It’s (((time))).
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A new preschool is opening this year at the public elementary school at Zuma Beach.
It’s called the Seaside Preschool at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School.
First day of classes is next Tuesday.
The preschool teacher is Roya Carlson.
Carlson is a former Cabrillo and Malibu Middle and High School parent.
She comes to Cabrillo from Buttercup Preschool over the hill in the Las Virgenes School District … where she has served as the master level preschool teacher since 2014.
There is also a special needs teacher there .. Lakin Crane.
The school is operated by the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District … and there was some opposition to the school district bringing preschool services to Malibu.
Longstanding preschool teachers … at preschools operated at local churches … told the city council that Malibu already had a functioning preschool system that could be upended by the district opening its own preschool.
The district spokeswoman tells K B U U that the school superintendent … Ben Drati … and the district’s preschool team met with all the preschool leaders in Malibu last spring .
Says school spokeswoman Gail Pinsker … quote … “all came to an understanding and this should be accepted in the community now after a very productive meeting.”
The Seaside Preschool has spaces open for enrollment.
Parents can call the school at (310) 457-0360 for information.
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The federal government is drawing new flood maps for Malibu.
The maps are being drafted by FEMA … the federal Emergency Management Agency.
There is a public hearing on all this on Tuesday evening at City Hall.
We’ll have a special report on this … Monday … on the KBUU News.
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Plans are slowly emerging to widen U-S 101 through Ventura County.
But it may take decades to do it.
It may cost 800 million dollars to widen the freeway between Thousand Oaks and Ventura.
And as that freeway gets more and more crowded …. traffic will spill over onto state Route 1 through Malibu.
Ventura County voters last year again rejected a local half cent sales tax to pay for transportation.
Most of U-S 1-0-1 in Ventura County has not been widened ever … and remains in the three lanes in each way configuration from when it was built in the 1950s.
Choke points in Ventura offer only two lanes each way.
Because there is no Ventura County money to pay for it … construction could be over a decade away.
The local agency is only now spending a paltry 10 million dollars … to come up with a master plan on widening the 101.
It may cost 800 million dollars to widen the freeway between Thousand Oaks and Ventura.
And as that freeway gets more and more crowded …. traffic will spill over onto state Route 1 through Malibu.
The Acorn newspaper notes that expanding the 101 was a major selling point of last November’s failed Ventura County ballot measure that sought to add a half-cent sales-tax increase to pay for transit-related projects, including local streets and roads, bike lanes, and bus and train service.
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A long awaited report has bene issued by the state power agency … regarding a proposed natural gas power plant 25 miles upwind of Malibu.
The manager of California’s electric grid tells state regulators that clean energy could be substituted for a proposed natural gas plant … but at a somewhat higher cost.
The California I-S-O system says solar power and energy storage could be used … instead of fossil fuels … to ensure reliability of electricity service in the local area.
Opponents of the proposed natural gas plant in Oxnard says it’s not fair.
Oxnard has three power plants on its beaches.
Ventura … Santa Barbara … malibu … we have none.
And that makes no sense if the plant is not even needed.
A Los Angeles Times investigation has shown that the state has overbuilt the electricity system … and has so much clean energy that it has to shut down some plants while paying other states to take the power California can’t use.
The overbuilding has added billions of dollars to ratepayers’ bills in recent years.
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Some major events this weekend here in the Malibu.
Tomorrow … at city hall … there’s a hazardous waste disposal.
You can drop off household hazardous waste (HHW) and electronic waste.
All containers must be clearly labeled to identify the contents.
Accepted materials include water-based paint … used motor oil … anti-freeze … automotive and household batteries … and unbroken compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Also … electronic devices … including T V sets.
Remember … label everything in a bag.
Stay in your car … and let the folks in the hazmat suits unload the stuff from your car.
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Concert On The Bluffs is Sunday at 5.
And the eclipse is Monday.
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Traffic …
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Weather for the Malibu ….
It will be (((( Mostly sunny, with a high near 73 )))) degrees today on the beach … (((( 91 )))) inland.
Winds will be strong.
Downcoast winds will be ((( up to 25 )))) miles per hour this afternoon.
Sunset tonight is at (((( 7:35 )))).
After that … expect((( patchy fog )))) tonight … a low of (((( 61 )))) on the beach … down to (((( 61 )))) in the canyons.
Tomorrow should be (((( much the same )))).
And the extended forecast for Monday’s eclipse … mostly sunny.
Right now … at Trancas it’s (((( 61 )))) degrees.
In upper Malibu Canyon … (((( 67 )))) .
And at Civic Center Los Angeles … (((( 68 )))).
In the ocean … it’s (((( 68 )))) degrees in the water at Zuma Beach.
The lifeguards say the waves today are (((( 1 to 3 )))) feet high ….
(((( Old S/SSE swell fades. New SSW swell slowly builds. ))))
Those are (((( fair )))) surfing conditions …. according to the lifeguards.
((((( High tide is at 8:26 this morning … 4 feet.
Low tide is at 1:21 this afternoon.
The major high tide … six and a quarter feet … at 7:35 tonight. ))))
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We also post the news at the Malibu Times dot com website.
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