The possibility of nude sunbathers’ photos being taken during aerial photography for the city worries some councilmembers.
By Ken Gale/Special to the Malibu Times
Nude sunbathers of Malibu beware. Your contours could become part of the landscape in living color aerial photos.
At least that was the concern of some city councilmembers about a proposal that the city hire a company to take digital aerial color photos of Malibu’s topographical contours. The photos would use new digital technology to provide much clearer pictures of the city’s geography.
Maybe too clear.
“I was told they are getting down to two to three pixels, which is nearly getting down to a gnat’s rear end,” said Councilman Ken Kearsley.
“Can we get 30 days notice so we can tell people in advance that they might not want to engage in nude sunbathing” on the day the photos are taken, asked Councilman Jeff Jennings.
But there was a more serious objection to the aerial photo proposal by Vexcel Corp. at the council meeting Monday night. The proposal would allow Vexcel to maintain ownership of the photos and resell them to other interested parties.
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky objected to “the idea that we’re paying over a $100,000 and they end up owning all the raw data and we end up getting nothing but the pictures.”
Jennings worried about how the city could restrict the sale of Malibu pictures to the public: “Who is allowed to get that information? It seems to me it’s proprietary, or is it public information?”
The cost of the photos would be $139,000 over four years. By providing more precise pictures of roads and terrain, they would be a “valuable tool” for the city’s emergency operations as well as for planning and zoning studies and for implementing public works projects, according to the city engineer’s report.
The proposal was referred back to the city engineer for more clarification.