New information triggers applicant’s request. Proposed plant would be located at the IOKE site.
By Cristina Forde/Special to The Malibu Times
In their 12-minute-long meeting Monday, the Malibu Planning Commission postponed three public hearings, including one project-a 1,900-square-foot wastewater treatment plant in the Community Development Zone-that will be the opening salvo in a forthcoming Civic Center development battle.
Attorney David Resnick, representing the Malibu Bay Company in its application for a Conditional Use Permit for its wastewater treatment plant, requested the continuance after new complications impacting the application surfaced Monday afternoon.
Resnick did not explain what issues had emerged and said after the meeting that he would not care to comment. He said the applicants needed time to study the information.
The Malibu Bay Company currently operates a wastewater treatment plant at the corner of Winter Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway, which serves the Malibu Colony Shopping Plaza and Coldwell Banker on PCH. This plant is a primary wastewater plant, in which the solids are removed and the remaining dirty water leached out from deep, vertical pits.
The Winter Canyon plant does not meet Regional Water Quality Control Board standards, so the Malibu Bay Company has proposed the new plant, to be located on the 85,000 square foot IOKE property. The proposed plant, which would use tertiary treatment, considered the cleanest, would be 1,900 square feet in size, with a 20-foot wide by 45-foot long by 28-foot high, one-story building. Resnick said in an earlier interview that most of the plant would be located underground. The building would house an order control unit.
Tertiary treatment involves removing solids from wastewater, then disinfecting the remaining water with ozone or ultraviolet radiation.
The Malibu Bay Company was originally given a July 2002 date to be operational with the new standards, but was given an extension to March 2003. However, with the planning delay, it may push the project past that date.
Already, Resnick said he didn’t think the new plant could be operational by March 2003. The Planning Commission, the City Council and the California Coastal Commission must approve the plant. The Environmental Review Board already approved the proposed plant at the IOKE site.
Opponents to the new plant say it will increase development, which Resnick says is “bogus.”
“There is already a development agreement,” which will need wastewater treatment, Resnick said.
Chairman Richard Carrigan, juggling meeting dates to squeeze in extra hearings on the Civic Center development and to accommodate Coastal Commission activity, tentatively continued the wastewater hearing to Sept. 10 if the Coastal Commission decides not to hear the Malibu Land Use Plan on the same date. Public speaker Ozzie Silna pointed out that many people who want to speak on the wastewater issue would also wish to speak at the Coastal Commission meeting on the LUP.
Planning Director Drew Purvis said his department would stay in close touch with the Coastal Commission to determine the schedule.
Also continued was a hearing on an application for a 250-square-foot beach storage unit, grading and retaining walls at 27854 Pacific Coast Highway and another application for a 4,445-square-foot residence at 31461 Anacapa View Drive.
The Environmental Impact Review (EIR) for the Forge Lodge bed-and-breakfast at Corral Canyon on Pacific Coast Highway will be taken up on Sept. 12.
Purvis introduced new City Planning Consultant Susan Tebo, who prepared the city’s environmental analysis of the wastewater treatment application, as “an extension of staff.” She works in the public and private sector.
Carrigan apologized about the scheduling conflicts to those who had come to speak on the pending applications.