Malibu City Council members also postpone a vote on the view restoration ordinance, a registration program for onsite wastewater treatment systems is established and the Malibu Library’s reopening has been pushed back.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
The City of Malibu is donating $20,000 to the local school district to explore the construction of a new ball field on district-owned land at Malibu High School, the eventual cost of which could rise to $1 million. The Malibu City Council approved the donation Monday night at its regular meeting.
The council also agreed to postpone a vote on the citywide view restoration ordinance until the fall, and established a registration program for onsite wastewater treatment systems, among other business.
The ball field donation will assist the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in funding environmental reports to explore the possibility of constructing one large field, or possibly two smaller ones. The $20,000 is budgeted for the city’s fiscal year 2011-12, and will be appropriated from its reserve fund.
Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal, who placed the proposal on the agenda, said the deal made sense for both the school district and the city, which has a need for more ball fields for youth and adults sports.
“This is to get more field space for our residents,” Rosenthal said. “[The school district has] land, we don’t have land. Maybe we have some money, they don’t have any money. That’s a good combination to me.”
If building plans proceed, City Manager Jim Thorsen said the total construction cost would start at $500,000 and could eventually go up to $1 million, depending on the size of the field, the amount of grading required and whether grass or artificial turf was installed as a playing surface.
Councilmember Jefferson Wagner said that by donating the money now, the city is indicating its intention to pay for some or all of the construction if the project proceeds. Wagner said any joint-use agreement with the school district should give the city significant use of the field.
“I want to make sure that if we’re investors with the school district … that we have the right to use that field when it’s not being utilized for school projects,” Wagner said.
“I totally agree with you that we want to make sure that … especially if we build it, we should have the majority of use of it,” Rosenthal responded.
View restoration vote postponed
The council decided to delay a vote on the citywide view restoration ordinance until September. The ordinance was scheduled to be considered at the council’s next meeting in July. Councilmember Lou La Monte suggested postponing the item until after the summer, when many Malibu residents return from vacation. La Monte said the view restoration ordinance would affect thousands of people, who needed to be given the chance to give their input.
“This is a critical issue that affects everyone in this city, and I think that we need to give it the amount of time to get this issue right,” La Monte said.
The ordinance provides regulation that would allow residents to reclaim up to one 180-degree view, requiring a neighbor to trim or cut trees or other vegetative growth that has blocked an original view, and certain steps that outline how one would reclaim their view.
The city would pay for mediation if an agreement between neighbors were not reached over a blocked view.
A city staff report identified 4,030 households as possible candidates for view restoration, each of which would qualify for the subsidized mediation. In the unlikely scenario that all 4,030 households took the city’s offer for mediation, the cost to the city would be between $1.2 million and $1.8 million.
An agreement, however, under mediation would not be legally binding.
The parties could also enter into arbitration, and could decide to agree beforehand whether the arbitration would be binding.
If all else fails, then the claimant would have to file a civil lawsuit in court.
The Planning Commission approved the ordinance in late May.