Ill-conceived cause

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I have a friend who I think has strayed off the path of protecting the environment into the realm of what I would term reverse environmentalism. In his dogged attempt to single-handedly protect the environment and defend the Trancas and PCH corner from allegedly illegal commercial development (the proposed Trancas Country Market), my friend may have well unleashed the beginnings of what will become a much larger and intrusive shopping center. Perhaps my friend sees himself as only the Messenger. Or perhaps as just a Concerned Citizen who is dedicated to protecting the trees and Zuma Creek. It remains unclear.

What is clear to me is that the developer, a Malibu local, has gone through years of costly planning and ventured through the labyrinth of city hearings, stacks of plan approvals and public forums. He has proposed an aesthetic, low impact, under-sized and community friendly shopping center. As of today, due to the legal delays chiefly created by my friend, the developer has lost his partners and has been forced to put the property up for sale. He hopes to attract a new business partner but if he fails in this attempt, the property will eventually sell to some other developer. If the parcel of land at issue were some beautiful, unspoiled expanse of gently rolling hills alongside the ocean, bragging wild poppies and lupines, it would be an entirely different story. But this is not the case. What we do have is a very old and worn out shopping center, with an old asphalt parking lot, faded white lines, an old septic system that must be leaching God knows what into the water table daily, old rusted light standards and old buildings with a few retailers subsisting there, one of whom is me.

Odds are great that a new developer will want to maximize the return on his investment which would necessarily include many aspects not included in the current proposal, such as developing the land across the creek (the old Riders and Ropers area), developing the land across the road, behind the Chevron station, erecting two story buildings instead of one story, putting up many more buildings, probably eliminating the notion of a “tot lot” and the Garden Center. This is not doomsday thinking, but thinking from the perspective of an average emotionally detached, non-resident, completely profit-oriented developer who wishes to maximize their revenue potential.

So, what my friend has done, unwittingly, is create a scenario under which he very well may have brought on a much more aggressive and destructive developer. The sharks are already circling. My friend could retract his suit. My friend could realize that it is inevitable that this corner will be re-developed and that through his actions, he could help determine in which way. As it now stands, he has played into the hands of over-development. For the folks who don’t want this corner to be “Cross Creeked,” I would say that due to my friend’s actions, they have moved a large step closer to getting just that.

Brian Pietro

The Malibu Beach Shack