Opponents say the proposed senior citizen center site is too isolated and too small. Proponents say senior club has been without a home for too long.
By Sylvie Belmond/Special to The Malibu Times
In usual Malibu fashion, a city proposal to house a community center for senior citizens in what will soon be the new City Hall on Stewart Ranch Road has become a controversial matter.
At a meeting on April 18 at Bluffs Park, Mayor Joan House and Councilmember Ken Kearsley presented the fruits of a year’s negotiation to the Malibu Parks and Recreation Commission, which supports the plan. They indicated the proposed center at the old Miramar Production building on Stewart Ranch Road would provide enough space for the seniors because it is expandable.
Kearsley noted the new facility would feature retractable walls that would increase the 1,200 square foot space into a 2,500 square foot area when needed. The club would also feature bathrooms and a kitchen, which would turn into two kitchens when expanded.
However, even if seniors have been without a true home for some time as they can only use facilities at the Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School a few days a month, some still opposed the idea of having the new 1,200 square foot center.
Instead, leaders of the Malibu Senior Citizens Club, which has about 80 members, want a 4,000 square foot modular building to be purchased and installed on a property adjacent to the Malibu Equestrian Center, near Malibu High School. But the center, leased from the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District by the city, does not have enough parking, say equestrians. Furthermore, if placed at the equestrian center, the new seniors club home would sit next to a 40-horse barn.
According to the negotiations for the city-proposed site, the city would pre-lease the 1,200 square foot facility in the old Miramar building for three, five-year increments using a community development block grant earmarked for a community center, which was about to expire March 31.
HUD extended the availability of the money because the city was working on an immediate solution, said Kearsley.
The new center would be accessible to seniors who travel by bus since there is a bus stop nearby on Civic Center Way. To get the seniors to and from the bus stop to the center, the city is considering the idea of purchasing a four-seat golf cart.
Kearsley added there would be enough money left over to purchase furnishings for the center as well.
But aside from being too small, some thought the proposed center would also isolate the seniors. Some also complained the deal was done behind closed doors and would leave them out in the cold.
“We reject the proposal, as we understand it, as inadequate in size and having no long-term equity,” said Kay Bobbe, vice president for the Malibu Senior Citizens Club, in a letter to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
The mobile modular building would cost $111,483 and will be available in August, said club leaders. And even if the cost to prepare the land, grade it and set up the unit is not included, some seniors still feel it is a better value in the long run.
Other seniors concurred with that point of view.
“What the Malibu Township Council (MTC) would like to see is a community building,” said Frank Basso, MTC member.
“I, being a senior citizen want to be around young people. It makes me feel younger and part of the society,” he said, noting that taking isolating the seniors is wrong. “Young people can learn from the old and the old can get the energy from the young.”
However, not all agreed with his point of view.
Jo Fogg, former president of the Senior Citizen Club, supports the idea of the center as proposed by the city.
“We want it in our lifetime and this will provide a location,” she said.
She, too, would like to see the young and the old come together, however, until an ideal permanent solution is found, she is grateful for the temporary senior quarters.
“This is a great start,” Fogg said. “It’s a senior center, no longer a senior club.”
Fogg said she is unwilling to let positive plans be overturned by negativity.
“If we come to any bumps, we will smooth them out,” she said. “If there is a time when we find a new location to have our own building, we will pick up our stuff and move.
“This is a good thing for our community.”