Those who often attend Malibu City Council and Planning Commission meetings may testify to the fact that finding universal agreement can be hard to come by among Malibu’s elected and appointed leaders; however, this was not the case Wednesday, when the combined 10-person panel at the joint City Council/Planning Commission meeting agreed that community involvement in Civic Center design has been dismal.
At the first meeting over possible designs for the Civic Center back in October 2014, turnout was reportedly low.
“Participation was not as robust as we had hoped,” Laura Stetson, a presenter from the city’s contracted lead consultant MIG, told those gathered. Stetson said there were “just over 30 people” who attended that workshop, with “a couple more online.”
It was the input from those 30 that set the consultants in motion coming up with possible design standards for the Civic Center, which include fostering “views of the ocean and the mountains” and that “it’s important to create that gathering place that the community can share and embrace as a place for people who live here,” according to Stetson and her colleague, John Kalinski.
Mayor Pro Tem Lou La Monte later weighed in, pointing out turnout to Wednesday’s much-publicized meeting was also low.
“We almost outnumber the audience, and that’s wrong,” La Monte said. “Somehow or another, we’ve got to change that equation.”
Planning Commissioner David Brotman made it a little more personal.
“Lou, I, too, am disheartened about the people who showed up,” Brotman said. “They reported half a million dollars that was spent on Measure R. I’d like to see those people today, if they really do care about the community.”
Community members will still have the opportunity to weigh in on design standards in Malibu’s Civic Center, with council and commissioners voting to allow input from locals, together with the consultants, on how to create a plan for the commercial hub of Malibu.
“You put people in the same room and magic happens. You roll your sleeves up,” Brotman said. “Things you never thought you’d agree to, you agree to, because it just makes so much sense.”
Talk at the meeting quickly turned from design standards to the creation of a specific plan for the area. In 2014, when Measure R was gathering steam, it was decided a Civic Center specific plan idea should be set aside in favor of design standards, a less costly and extensive plan. However, leaders now believe a specific plan may be the best solution for how to avoid a “piecemeal” design of the Civic Center.
“I don’t know how we’re doing this without addressing this in some kind of comprehensive form,” La Monte said. “If we’re going to do this, I think we need to actually do a specific plan, because I don’t think we’re going to make much progress doing it this way.”
“We’ve got a wonderful opportunity in the Civic Center because it is so open; it is so relatively undeveloped,” Planning Commissioner Jeff Jennings said.
Jennings also warned of the pitfalls of pursuing a specific plan. A handful of Civic Center specific plans have failed to pass muster in the 25 years since Malibu was incorporated.
“I think that, overall, if you don’t have a vision, [everyone can] buy into, we’re going to end up with a fourth or fifth specific plan that ends up gathering dust,” Jennings said.