On November 4, 2003, Malibu citizens will have the opportunity to vote “Yes” or “No” on adopting the Malibu Bay Development Agreement. Last spring, the planning commission voted no on the originally offered development agreement. Following that, negotiations by the city began on a new plan that met the objections of the old and provided for two exciting new possibilities, which most citizens of Malibu had on their dream list.
For the first time in our history, we can buy the Chili Cook-Off site for $25 million dollars with grants from the state.
We have the possibility of creating a treatment plant on one acre of that land, which will serve commercial properties in the Civic Center producing tertiary treated water to serve the park and commercial uses as a great step in cleaning up the lagoon and ocean.
We also have the possibility of saving over 100,000 square feet of development in the Civic Center.
We will have an urgent care center with a million dollar start-up grant and guaranteed six-year lease and rental.
A community center will be built on Point Dume and a million- and a-half dollars will be available for ball fields.
All of that is in the newly negotiated plan. And you and I will have to decide if that is what we want. If we don’t want the agreement, then it is back to every owner developing as much and as fast as possible under the existing general plan. A small, vocal minority against this agreement will tell you that it is an imperfect plan. They are right. For there is no perfect plan. Lawyers since time began have been trying to create perfect agreements for perfect plans. But good plans, yes, and this is a good plan.
So now that the Chili Cook-Off site is within reach, the negative minority complain is that it hasn’t been given to us for free. That will happen when horses sprout wings and fly. And the wastewater treatment is called a sewer (which it isn’t) to frighten us. Now that less development is within reach, the fault finders complaint is the fear that the Bay property owned in Point Dume, along with the golf course, will be developed. It may be a possibility down the line, with or without the development agreement. But it is being used as a scare tactic.
So the problem between now and November will be to distinguish among the genuine advantages, the real disadvantages and the pie-in-the sky scares. Each of us needs to investigate this for ourselves. The final test will be the voting booth.
Georgianna McBurney