Steve Uhring and Ozzie Silna (who doesn’t even live in the City of Malibu) pop up again to distort the facts about the proposed Malibu Bay Company (MBC) development agreement which we negotiated in 1999-2000. Contrary to Mr. Uhring’s and Mr. Silna’s histrionics, the proposed MBC development agreement provides for less potential commercial and residential development in the Malibu Civic Center than the existing City Interim Zoning Ordinance (IZO) and City General Plan. The City IZO would permit up to 280,885 square feet of commercial development and another 17 residential units on the seven vacant or semi-vacant MBC properties in the Civic Center. And that is without any public amenities such as sports fields, a senior/teen community center, parks, playgrounds, constructed wetlands, open space, etc.
The city’s 1995 General Plan is worse. In return for some of the above-named amenities, the potential build-out on the seven BC vacant or semi-vacant Civic Center properties would increase to a whopping 428,726 square feet of commercial development and 17 residential units.
What Mr. Uhring and Mr. Silna are trying to do is scare Malibu voters into believing the bulldozers are on the way and anyone who supports the MBC development agreement is driving them. Actually, under the terms of Measure N, which we authored and which Mr. Uhring and Mr. Silna spent thousands of dollars to try to defeat with an unconstitutional Ballot Measure P, it is the voters of Malibu who adopted Measure N in the November, 2,000 election, who are in the driver’s seat. Measure N guarantees it will be you, not the City Council, who has the last word on this issue.
We have never advocated that the MBC development is a perfect solution. It is admittedly a compromise, but one that results in less commercial and residential development cumulatively on all 12 MBC properties than what is currently provided for in the city’s 1993 IZO and 1995 General Plan. And it provides the City and its citizens with a much needed senior/teen community center, sports fields and open space.
Mayor Joan House
City Councilmember
Tom Hasse