I am a resident of Malibu West so I am disclosing my bias about the issue I am writing about. That is more than I can say for the developer who is trying to “trade” the city ball fields for the right to develop 38 large condominiums in the Trancas Field area. This developer has used dubious and misleading tactics to advance his intentions. Two weekends ago there was a table in front of How’s market with a few young ladies collecting signatures of people in favor of this development. When I asked these young ladies who they worked for, they disingenuously tried to make their duty sound very official, almost as if they worked for the city. I had to pose several pointed questions to them before they admitted that they worked for the developer. I looked at the signature sheets and most of them were from out of the area. When they were from Malibu they were not from the West Malibu area.
Generally, any time someone is so guarded about this sort of thing you know that there are ulterior motives. The developer is using an emotional issue to cover his true intentions. This is true of politics in general these days. It is often hard to tell who is really behind a particular ad anymore, there is very nebulous disclosure. While we do need ball fields in Malibu we do not need 38 condos. I know about the need for ball fields all too well since my two kids (9 and 11) are active in many sports. The increased traffic, noise, and view blockage will disrupt the serenity of this area. If you look where the developer is attempting to place the ball fields, it is in an area that is very illogical for this purpose. Go look at the story poles that are now on top of Trancas Canyon if you need proof of this.
We have the land in West Malibu for this. The city owns a large parcel sufficient for a park or ball fields at the top of Trancas Canyon already. As this issue is debated I would ask everyone in Malibu to consider how they would feel if this development was in their back yard and vote accordingly. Let’s stay strong together and keep our city beautiful and progressive in a manner that suits us all.
Matt Borenzweig