The following letter was addressed to the Malibu City Council. It has been reduced from its original length.
Although this letter is related to my appeal that you will be hearing next month, I wanted to send this separately because it deals with a much larger issue than one subject.
If ever a community needed a creative zoning code, Malibu is that community. I was on the committee which drafted the original Interim Zoning Ordinance (IZO). The intent of that document was temporary and discretionary until the community better understood the issues. It is now 12 years later and the IZO is the bane of Malibu and to have made the Interim zoning Ordinance the permanent Zoning Ordinance (ZO) is frankly ludicrous. This ordinance has done more to foster lawsuits; pit neighbor against neighbor; waste time, money and energy; create low morale and high turnover in the planning department. It is reactive, not proactive or forward thinking and it is usurping everyone’s energy and morale in dealing with its ambiguities and incompleteness. With the adoption of this interim code, it’s as if you have thrown in the towel and no longer require a higher standard of development.
As an architect and planner, I feel the ZO is as important as the LCP. It is time to hire a creative planning consultant to listen to our problems and come back with creative solutions. It is not difficult to have a code that is both creative and reasonably specific. Larry Wan’s MID plan was immature at the time but definitely in the right direction in developing standards for each neighborhood’s specific character, as one size does not fit all. In addition, it would have the added benefit of reducing pressure on staff. The code does not differentiate between an 8 percent slope and a 30 percent slope or address massive trellis structure/arcades placed in required yard setbacks. Trying to have staff fix the existing code with piecemeal solutions is yet another monumental waste of time and energy while letting Malibu’s natural and manmade environments slide away.
Bottom line is that both residential and commercial projects are moving ahead and being built within poorly drafted interim guidelines that will continue to erode the visual character of our community.
Ron Goldman