I’m just an average Malibu resident, who doesn’t pay attention to what is going on every day in city government. I mind my own business and go to work every day to make ends meet so I can continue to live in this beautiful place we call The Malibu. And, I never write letters.
However, after reading the lunatic and vicious political rantings of the Malibu Homeowners for Reform, ne Citizens for Fair Zoning, in newspaper ads and fliers published and distributed during the last couple of weeks that are obviously bogus, “manufactured” issues intended to enflame the masses, who they believe are either ignorant or stupid with regard to state health and safety codes, I felt compelled to write something in response.
Aren’t these people who are now demanding a relaxation of the Building and Safety Codes and Zoning Codes some of the very same people who were yelling and screaming about the city failing to enforce and prosecute a Building and Safety Code violation/citation when a balcony collapsed, killing two people and injuring 20 more?
Give me a break! These nasty, personal attacks on two of the council members running for re-election are the lowest form of demagoguery, but they ring a familiar bell. Their ravings sound very similar to those of a group called Fed Up, who were yelling and screaming a couple of elections ago about down-sizing and legal nonconforming, scaring Malibu residents into foolishly believing they were going to lose their homes, or have to tear them down after so many years, and they weren’t going to be able to get loans, and the entire residential real estate market was going to collapse, if they elected the candidates who wanted “slow growth.”
Well, that turned out to be just a pack of lies. In spite of down-zoning and lots being legal nonconforming, the real estate market is just fine, thank you! Read the glowing real estate sales statistics, if you don’t believe me.
This group talks about “special privileges” and “entitlements” being granted, but the only group I see getting any of these privileges or entitlements are the developers, namely the Malibu Bay Company in the settlement agreement. The “agreement” (as outlined in the newspapers) grants them the “entitlement” to more commercial development in return for “public benefit amenities.” However, when I looked at the “public benefits” they are giving, I didn’t see any benefits for me; I am not a senior citizen nor a teen, and I don’t have kids who need ballfields. So, what’s my benefit? All I see for me is more traffic on PCH to contend with while trying to get to work and back, and as we who work in town already know, the traffic is a nightmare now.
Additionally, we do not need any more residential or commercial development in western Malibu. We voters made this very clear to the City Council on numerous occasions over the last nine years, and this is reflected in the General Plan document. The Trancas market/shopping center has a restaurant/shop space that’s been vacant for the past three or four years now, so why would the city allow an increase in development there? To sit ugly and vacant for more years? I hope not.
Wake up, you Malibu residents. Don’t be fooled again by ridiculous ads that are nothing but vicious political rhetoric targeted at those they consider “thimble-brains.”
Julie Steinberg