Commercial property owners within the Civic Center are expected to pass a special tax Nov. 20 to fund the design of a new wastewater treatment facility in the Civic Center, City Manager Jim Thorsen said.
Following a development prohibition placed on the City of Malibu in 2011 by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the City of Malibu must build a centralized wastewater treatment system in the Civic Center by November 2015. The state argues that the Civic Center needs a centralized system because wastewater from the area is trickling down and polluting nearby ocean water.
Civic Center commercial property owners are being asked by the city to fund the design of a wastewater treatment system as a part of implementing “Phase One” of the project. The city council established a Community Facilities District (CFD) in August, under which it hopes to levy a special tax on 15 commercial property owners who own approximately 77 acres of land in the Civic Center.
The city estimates it will collect $6.5 million in funds from the tax to pay for the system’s design. Each landowner gets one vote per acre owned and the special tax needs two-thirds approval to pass, meaning at least 52 approval votes must be cast.
The city has spent $2.54 million to date on the design of the wastewater treatment facility, and anticipates that an additional $4 million will be needed for an environmental impact report (EIR), construction documents and to obtain permits, according to a staff report.
That funding has thus far been paid for by the city, but commercial property owners in the Civic Center are expected to pick up the expense at a cost of $12,500 per commercial acre to keep the city’s plan moving forward. Residential properties included in the vote, such as the Crummer site, will pay $2,500 per residential acre.
Robert Gold, the applicant for the Crummer site, volunteered the property to become part of the CFD in an effort to help get the special tax levied and allow the city to begin work on the treatment facility.
“By adding the [Crummer property] acreage … it helps the city get to the point where there’s a greater certainty that we’ll get [a] two-thirds vote,” Gold said.
The City Council is expected to certify the CFD voting results at a Nov. 26 meeting. If the special tax passes, city staff will present the council with an ordinance lobbying for the tax at a Dec. 10 meeting.