From disgruntled shopping center owners who deem retail regulations unnecessary to Malibu residents who remember when the Malibu Lumberyard shopping center was an actual lumberyard, the City of Malibu received more than 100 comment letters on a draft formula retail ordinance to regulate chain stores in Malibu’s Civic Center.
The proposal would require new chain retailers wishing to open a franchise in Malibu’s Civic Center to first apply for and obtain a conditional use permit from the city. Many of the letters argued in favor of any measure to preserve Malibu’s character.
“In most places, you could get off a plane blindfolded, remove the cloth and never know where you are,” wrote 40-year residents Gisela and Dichask Guttman. “Every other city is the same mall replicated mindlessly, just another place to go to the movies or buy the same junk food or chain food you get everywhere else. What is special about Malibu is that it is not another carbon copy. The encroachment of chain business establishments threatens that.”
A chain, under the current draft, is defined as having six or more locations in the Southern California area and having standardized characteristics such as color schemes, decor, layout and uniforms. The ordinance would also limit new chains in the Civic Center to 2,500 square feet.
The Guttmans and other supporters believe the Civic Center commercial zones have fallen victim to an infiltration of chain stores and restaurants, causing Malibu to slowly lose its unique, small-town character.
On the flip-side of the argument were the Malibu Chamber of Commerce and owners of those shopping centers, who are uniformly against an ordinance. They argued that enacting restrictions against chain stores would only drive patrons away.
“Property owners choose certain retail tenants because they [know] there is a demand for those tenants, and that customers will travel to patronize those tenants,” wrote Matt Khoury, owner of the Malibu Village Shopping Center. “To ignore that customers will drive to patronize formula retail establishments forced out of the Civic Center ignores a basic truth of the retail market.”
Others argued that free-market principles were not exactly straightforward. John Evans and Alison Reid, owners of Diesel Bookstore in the Malibu Country Mart shopping center, admitted it was risky for them to speak out in favor of the ordinance, but felt compelled to submit their thoughts to the city.
“We know that many landlords, including our landlord, profess a philosophy of free market capitalism even though everyone knows there is actually no such thing… those with the money and the property have no responsibility to the communities that allow them to exist and that in no small measure provide them with the money and the property they have,” the couple wrote. “… The so-called ‘free market’ in Malibu has been so gravely distorted by Malibu’s celebrity reputation and by commercial real estate limits and exploitations that Malibu is in danger of losing its character completely.”
A group of owners including Khoury, Malibu Country Mart landlord Michael Koss and Malibu Lumberyard leasing company Glimcher have retained attorney David Waite to represent the stakeholders while the city deliberates Civic Center regulations. Waite has hinted at legal action in several letters submitted to the planning staff, accusing the city of “protectionist” actions by attempting to favor local merchants over formula retailers.
The landlords are urging the city to “rethink its approach and…achieve its goals in a legally sustainable manner,” Waite wrote. Otherwise, such an ordinance could result in “balkanizing and fever-pitched litigation for many years to come.”
To view the comments mentioned here and dozens of other letters received by the city, visit malibucity.org.
As of Monday afternoon, 119 comment letters had been received, according to senior planner Joseph Smith.
“Taken altogether, there’s been a considerable amount of input from both sides,” Smith said.
Although the 30-day comment period ended April 11, Smith said the planning department would continue posting any submissions after the deadline. The planning department now begins the process of addressing comments and revising the draft, Smith said. He estimated a recommended ordinance would come before the Malibu Planning Commission in June.