Parks and Recreation Director Catherine Walter told the council the owner of a paved, unused lot in the Civic Center recently offered to make the site available for the city’s first skateboard park.
Walter later said the city and the property owner, who she declined to identify, had worked out few details, including whether the city would pay a rental fee for the use of the lot.
She said city officials are currently investigating whether the property has sufficient on-site parking and space for a storage container and restroom. But, she said, the fenced-in lot, next to the GTE building on Cross Creek Road, looks promising. “It’s already built, that’s the beauty of it,” she said.
Walter said she hopes other people in the community with resources to share will help the city meet its recreational needs. “With the limited open space available to us, maybe we’ll have to go in that direction.”
Earlier plans for a park behind City Hall were abandoned when contaminated soil from an underground natural gas tank was discovered at the site.
Construction noise
Officials from the Building and Safety Department met recently with the Malibu Contractors Association to discuss the association’s efforts to limit construction noise on Saturdays.
Residents, seeking relief from construction noise six days a week, recently asked the council to ban construction on Saturdays. But rather than enact a ban, the council asked the association to draw up its own rules to reduce Saturday construction noise.
Gerald Lemonnier, president of the association, said the group is developing a handout for all contractors and subcontractors working in the city. Lemonnier said the handout will explain that the association developed its own rules as a way of avoiding a legislated construction ban. The handout will ask contractors to follow rules limiting the hours of work on Saturday, and reducing construction noise on that day and during the rest of the week, as well.
“We’re trying to develop a work ethic to keep the noise down,” he said.
Tattle-tale neighbors
Keith Young, community services specialist, estimated the city, over the current fiscal year, will issue approximately 1,400 notices of code violations. Young said the overwhelming majority, about 90 percent, of the inspections occur because of residents complaining of activities at their neighbors’ homes.
Young, and Building and Safety Official Vic Peterson, said compared to other cities for which they have worked, Malibu has an unusually high number of code violations. City Manager Harry Peacock said a high number is not surprising for a relatively new city. “People have to get used to the new corporate culture,” he said.
Most of the current cases involve home renovations without a permit.
Wetlands delineation
Planning Director Craig Ewing said Dr. Terry Huffman, the botanist performing the wetlands delineation study of the Civic Center, recently took core samples from the Chili Cook-off site and will return shortly for samples from the parcel west of City Hall.
Huffman told Ewing he is on schedule and plans to have the study results completed by the end of the month.
More sheriff’s deputies to patrol Malibu Park
Lt. Thom Bradstock, Malibu liaison with the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, acting on complaints of Malibu Park residents that drivers are speeding through their neighborhood, requested that the additional traffic enforcement currently in operation on Point Dume now be split between the two neighborhoods. The council agreed to Bradstock’s request and asked him to implement the change immediately.
Another vacancy in public works
Interim Public Works Director John Medina announced he is leaving the city this month for a new position in Washington state.