At the Feb. 28 City Council meeting, there was a lot of misinformation from the appellant and his supporters who are trying to block the proposed Barbra Streisand/James Brolin home. Left unchallenged, those false allegations can assume the apparency of fact. I feel it is necessary to correct two of the most egregiously untrue and ridiculous of those charges, especially since one plainly defames a respected city official.
1. As to the charge that Ms. Streisand has “optioned” a fourth property on Zumirez, that is simply untrue. It is a fabrication.
2. Both Malibu papers repeated, without checking the facts, the appellant’s allegation that the city biologist, Marti Witter, had redefined the bluff of the Brolins’ property only on the basis of the submissions of the Brolins’ geologist. In fact, the city biologist arrived at her conclusion based upon her own personal onsite inspection and on the two adjacent bluff properties. Ms. Witter is highly regarded in the city of Malibu and surrounding areas for her independence and expertise. Someone’s self-serving fiction to the contrary cannot go uncorrected.
Also, in the face of the appellant’s continued complaint about the substantial ESHA setback to which the Brolins have agreed and which the Planning Commission approved, it, in truth, would constitute the largest setback of any of the bluff properties in the neighborhood. In fact it would be three times deeper than some existing nearby setbacks.
Robert Shachtman,
Architect AIA