My thanks to Matthew Katz for pointing out that this is not the time for Beverly Taki to be a city council member. As I see it, there are two dangers in having someone with nothing but real estate experience in office for the next four years. If the Malibu Bay Company Agreement passes, our city will be gifted with 25 acres of open space on lots from east to west along PCH, which will go a long way toward helping lessen our future traffic problems.
However, to keep our open space, we must avoid the fate of our cities from Los Angeles to Phoenix, where pro-development officials are enticed by lucrative offers from developers into selling municipally owned open space for shopping centers or condominiums, or swapping it with developers for large park parcels on the outskirts of town. With the traffic we are facing on PCH, that is the last thing we want to have happen here.
Secondly, the beautiful scenery north of Pepperdine on PCH is the result of the 20-40 acre per home zoning on the landside opposite the ocean. To a developer, this prime land is just waiting to be transformed into luxury housing. All it takes is for one vote to shift the balance toward upzoning one or two of these lots to hillsides of tracts as has happened in so many California communities that were once surrounded with green hills as Malibu is today.
So, my friends, think carefully before you vote on April 9 and remember the reason that you moved here in the first place.
Richard Hillman