There are solicitors at the supermarket asking for donations to pay one landowner $25 million to improve his other land holdings by buying a certain piece of property from him to be used only as he stipulates. The incentive is to “save” the Chili Cook-Off site for future Malibuites. That is the good part. The bad part is that the ex-owner wants the irrevocable stipulation that the property only be used as part of wastewater treatment in the form of settling ponds. This increases the value of his surrounding properties because the hotel and other improvements that can be planned, and which are hidden behind the metaphoric block wall, can’t be built without such excess water treatment facilities in the center of Malibu! Remember, this is the same owner who built the stealth pitch’n putt behind the real block wall along Malibu Road.
The Chili Cook-Off site is part of a flood plain. Those of you who have lived here long enough know that it floods and gets very soggy most years. A second consideration is that owners of large drainages will be responsible for the toxic impact the drainage water has on creeks, streams and the bay. This water has to be cleaned up. Someone has to pay.
There is no question that Malibu needs a comprehensive policy on water management. Water is a valuable commodity, even so-called grey water. The siting of a wastewater plant in central Malibu to suit one particular constituent ignores the fact that Malibu is over 20 miles long and has to factor in many considerations, including that of zoning.
The Chili Cook-Off land is R-1 – recreational land – with a seasonal expectation of natural flooding. Eventually people will come to realize that the playfields on the Bluffs, with proper shoring and foundation work, can be the commercial center of Malibu.
The $25 million deal is overpriced, but if the buyers are ready to get their names pressed on little blocks of cement, fine. But they should demand that no stipulations as to the use of the land be accepted and that Malibu must come to grips with zoning, traffic and water policies that will allow it to become a livable community and not just an easy joke for talking heads on the evening news.
V. Gerald Scordan