Two venerable old Malibu institutions were in the news this week, but for entirely different reasons.
One, Malibu Realty, has operated as a real estate company in this town for more than 36 years. At the end of this week it will be closing its doors. After a facelift to its building, a new company will be back, apparently, with a new crew, new energy, and new capital, but still in the same old business–selling real estate.
But there is another institution in this town that is also in the process of undergoing change. It’s been out of business for quite some time, actually 26 or 27 years, but the land on which it used to sit, long since vacant, is apparently at a crossroads. As frequently happens in this town, the land is in Malibu but the crossroads is located in the center of the California Coastal Commission hearing room.
Many of you drive by the land everyday when heading into town because the parcel on which this other venerable institution formerly sat was located at the end of Las Flores Canyon Creek, sandwiched between Duke’s Restaurant and the Union 76 Station. The lot housed a building called the Albatross and, although some still deny it, I had heard that there was a restaurant bar downstairs and a six- or eight-room motel upstairs.
Although some of the old-timers I’ve talked to emphatically deny any personal experience, most are of the opinion that the upstairs was inhabited by a number of “friendly ladies” who conducted their business efficiently and with the greatest of discretion.
The problem is this.
Recently, the Coastal Commission, in a 5 to 4 decision, reminiscent of the U.S. Supreme Court, decided it didn’t want what had been proposed for that spot, a small 8-unit condominium.
Almost all agree that the parcel is too small for anything visitor serving, like a real restaurant, and besides, the environmentalists who led the charge to block the condominiums want to turn the spot into a wetlands, or some such thing.
The problem the Coastal Commission created is that sooner or later it has got to say “Yes” to something. That is, unless it has the bucks to buy the land, which apparently it does not.
After much thought I have come up with a plan.
It seems to me that there’s a solution that could solve everyone’s needs simultaneously.
I believe the developer should propose and the Coastal Commission should accept a restoration of the building to its former use.
It has many obvious advantages.
– It would certainly comply with the Coastal Act and be a visitor-serving use.
– It would need less parking than a typical restaurant/motel because, whereas in an ordinary restaurant bar people tend to hang around, it’s well known that in this type of an establishment people finish quickly and go home.
– It causes minimal neighborhood tumult, as the patrons tend to be well behaved and us-ually try to avoid calling attention to them-selves.
And it has definite environmental ad-vantages.
What minimal traffic it produces would generally be later in the evening. And since much of the traffic would be locally gen-erated, it would probably run against the pre-vailing traffic.
Lastly, the environmentalists want most of the site to remain undeveloped and set back from the ocean, which of course destroys the views, and thusly the condominium developer has resisted them mightily.
But, whereas occupants of condominiums spend a great deal of time staring out the windows at the ocean, most of the patrons of this type of establishment I’m proposing care little about looking out the window, which they generally don’t consider the primary view.
The project probably could be fast-tracked for approval because it wouldn’t need any extensive Environmental Impact Report since I’m certain that many of the Malibu locals as well as some Coastal Commissioners and its staff are already familiar with this type of a visitor-serving activity.
There is, however, one thing we would have to change. In olden times the clientele was principally male visitor serving, but times have changed and the facility would have to be adapted accordingly.
It’s a modest proposal but I think it has possibilities.