First Malibu Mayor declares possible council candidacy
Walt Keller, the first Mayor of Malibu, announced this week in a letter to the editor that he might run in the City Council election in April.
So far, at least six people have picked up candidacy papers from City Hall: Planning Commissioners Ed Gillespie and Regan Schaar; Public Works Commissioner Lou La Monte; a man named Kofi (he did not provide a last name); Public Works Commissioner Laura Rosenthal; and Harold Greene, a member of the Native American Cultural Resources Advisory Committee. Planning Commissioner John Mazza, who had failed council runs in 2004 and 2006, is also considering candidacy, but could not be reached for confirmation.
All candidates have until Jan. 15 to get 20 valid signatures from Malibu registered voters to officially enter the race for two open seats.
Keller, 78, in his letter said he had pulled a nomination form but has not yet decided if he will file it.
?I pulled the form because I am concerned that many council members, past, present, and future, forget or ignore the Vision and Mission
Statements prepared by a committee of residents and adopted by the first City Council,? Keller wrote. ?As one involved with establishing our city and as its first mayor, I believe these statements represent what forming the City of Malibu was all about; especially, ?whose citizens have historically evidenced a commitment to sacrifice urban and suburban conveniences in order to protect that environment and lifestyle.?
?If I can find two candidates that wholeheartedly endorse those statements and will make them part of their campaign platform, I will not file and will support them to the best of my ability,? he wrote.
A retired aerospace engineer, Keller was the leader in gaining cityhood for Malibu. He then became the city?s first mayor. Keller lost a council re-election bid council in 1994, but returned with a victory in the 1996 election. He was defeated in 2000, and again in 2004. Keller moved to Malibu in 1961.
Council to vote on Landon Center expansion, deny damage claim
The Malibu City Council at its meeting Monday of next week will decide whether to allocate $1 million in undesignated city funds for the expansion of the Michael Landon Center at Bluffs Park. The council will also consider at the meeting a claim alleging that the city?s lack of signage near an open trench on Pacific Coast Highway last year caused a man to fall from his bicycle. City staff has recommended that it deny the claim.
The funding for the Landon Center expansion is not included in the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget. If $1 million is appropriated, the city?s general fund undesignated reserve will be $7.9 million-an amount less than the city council?s goal of maintaining $8 million in undesignated funds. A city report for the expansion project includes three design options and an estimated project cost of $1.5 million.
Chamber seeks to modify party permit law
The Malibu Chamber of Commerce is asking the city to revise the Malibu Municipal Code regarding the regulation of temporary use permits to allow more flexibility in the allotment and issuance of permits for events for more than 100 people. The issue will be addressed by the City Council on Monday.
After numerous complaints by beachfront homeowners about numerous parties hosted by corporations promoting their products during the summer time that were noisy and disrupted traffic, the city council had drafted new regulations in March of 2008 that limited the number parties at a private home with 100 or more people at10ding and which included a ?commercial component? to four per year. Events on commercial properties were limited to six per year.
The Chamber of Commerce on behalf of local businesses is asking the city to update the ?definition of what constitutes a temporary event that requires a TUP? and to increase the maximum number of permits allowed per year. Also, the Chamber is requesting that the council revise TUP standards to differentiate between single properties and individual businesses on a property, and to add TUP standards for marathon and triathlon events. The council will also consider whether to decrease the required public noticing period from 32 days to 10 days.
Coastal considers Crummer Field development
Po10tial development of the 24-acre parcel adjacent to Bluffs Park known as the Crummer Field will be discussed by the California Coastal Commission at its Jan. 14 meeting in Huntington Beach.
Coastal staff has recommended the possible development of the parcel could include a five-home subdivision and a public ball field if the developer contributes a $750,000 mitigation fee.
The parcel is currently zoned as commercial-visitor serving. The commission will consider a Local Coastal Program amendment to allow the zone to include residential and recreational usage.
Crummer Field owner Richard Ackerman several years ago proposed a plan to the city that included dividing the parcel into eight lots, constructing five single-family homes with a private road on the eastern end of the property. The plan would also dedicate to the city two acres on the west end of the parcel so that it could expand the city-owned portion of Bluffs Park to include another baseball field and 35 parking spaces.
The $750,000 mitigation fee has long been deliberated between Ackerman and the Coastal Commission. To compensate the loss of land for public use that would be converted into a residential zone, the fee would go toward the implementation of affordable, visitor-serving accommodations such as the former Topanga Ranch Motel owned by the state.
Adamson Hotel lot to be sold for public auction
More than a decade after the project received city approval, plans by local developer Richard Weintraub to build the 146-room Adamson Hotel have come to a halt due to a mortgage debt of nearly $22 million.
The 28-acre lot that was to house the hotel, located at 24111 Pacific Coast Highway near Pepperdine University, will be sold at public auction Jan. 27 at the Los Angeles County Court building in Norwalk.
Malibu City Council approved the hotel construction in 1998 for the Adamson family, who at the time owned the property. Weintraub purchased the land the following year.
Weintraub?s plan called for a hotel divided into 16 villas ranging in size up to 6,000 square feet each that would surround private courtyards. The proposed architectural style of the project was along the lines of a Southern California garden hotel with a historic Spanish Mediterranean character. Weintraub in 2007 said the Hotel Bel-Air in Stone Canyon is an example of the feel he wanted to achieve.
The approval process for the Adamson Hotel had been particularly long and arduous. The original development began in the 1970s under the county, with a proposal for a 300-room hotel. The project received county and California Coastal Commission approval, but when Malibu became a city, everything came to a halt.
The initial city permit application was filed for review in August 1994, and, thereafter, went through a city planning and state environmental review process. Hearings then took place before the Planning Commission and the city council, and the project received its final city approval in 1998.
Corral Fire defendants seek case dismissal
The remaining four defendants accused of starting the 2007 Corral Canyon Fire appeared at Van Nuys Superior Court for a pretrial hearing Dec. 10, the Los Angeles County District Attorney?s office confirmed Monday.
A Jan. 14 court hearing has been scheduled for two of the defendants, William Thomas Coppock and Brian Alan Anderson, whose attorneys are seeking a motion to dismiss the case.
All defendants are then scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 25 for a pretrial conference, during which a trial date could be set.
The four men are charged with recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure. The fire was started ?during and within an area of a state of emergency,? which could be a factor in sen10cing if the suspects are convicted.
The fifth defendant, Brian David Franks, was convicted early last year as part of a plea bargain that requires him to testify against the other defendants.
The Corral Fire, Malibu?s worst since 1993, started in November 2007 after an illegal campfire in an area on State Parks property known as ?the cave? got out of control. The fire burned 4,900 acres and destroyed 86 structures, including 53 homes.
Planning to discuss temporary lights at MHS
The Planning Commission at its Jan. 19 meeting will discuss an amendment to the Malibu Local Coastal Program and Malibu Municipal Code regarding temporary lights at Malibu High School.
The Planning Commission will then make a recommendation to the City Council in a writ10 resolution. This amendment must be approved by the City Council and certified by the California Coastal Commission before it takes effect.
The Coastal Commission last October voted to deny the school district?s request for temporary lights during football games and some practices because, among other reasons, it is not allowed in the city?s Local Coastal Program. The City Council voted a few days later to start an expedited process to get that feature of the LCP changed.
Many community residents who live near the school?s field have protested the use of any lights at all, due to environmental and other concerns.
Malibu High had been lighting its athletic field for night football games for many years, in violation of a Coastal Commission permit. When the Coastal Commission approved a permit for the upgrading of Malibu High?s athletic complex in 2000, lighting was banned, although the district never actually requested a permit for lighting. The request that went before the Coastal Commission last October was for an amendment to the permit.
?Olivia Damavandi