The council is also scheduled to discuss
the controversial proposal to require septic system inspection prior to home sales.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Next week’s council meeting is expected to go long into the night, as members have not met for more than a month, and its Monday agenda is full of complex and perhaps controversial issues.
Among the items listed on the agenda is the city’s long-awaited lease agreement with local developer Richard Weintraub for the old Malibu Lumber portion of the Chili Cook-Off site. Weintraub, whose 30,000-square-foot retail and restaurant plan for the land went before the Planning Commission on Tuesday after The Malibu Times went to print, has been in negotiation with the city for nearly a year. The 39-year lease agreement calls for Weintraub to make a $925,000 annual payment to the city, with the rent being increased by 5 percent every five years. There is also additional language to raise the rent even more, depending on the increase in the consumer price index and whether Weintraub were to receive a high amount of sublease money from the site’s buildings. The lease also has an option be extended to 54 years.
Weintraub is required by the lease to sublease to local businesses at least 3,000 square feet of the property, or up to 20 percent of the rentable square footage. Also, any subleases greater than 5,400 square feet must be approved by the city. And Weintraub cannot transfer the lease to another party without a nod from local officials. Additionally, the open space portions of the property must be made available for city-sponsored public events.
Weintraub must begin paying the lease once the plaza is built, but by March 1 next year at the latest. If all goes well, construction of the new buildings are expected to be completed by next summer.
Specialty grocery store tops the list for residents
As development gets underway on the lumber site, the city continues to look into what the people of Malibu want in terms of commercial businesses in Malibu. At Monday’s meeting, the council will review a recently released economic study written by a consultant with help from an advisory committee composed of residents. The main theme of the study is that locals are unhappy with the retail selection in the city, but the report stresses the only way to encourage retail that people want is for rents to decrease. And for this to happen, the report suggests development standards must be less restrictive so commercial developers can construct more and allow for both high- and low-rent businesses, while still being able to yield a profit.
Current city law restricts development to 15 percent of a property, although in some cases this can be increased to 20 percent. The study suggests that development should be increased to as much as 60 percent, with more development square footage given to those who agree to accept businesses paying lower rents.
The report includes results from a survey sent to the community. Of 8,900 people receiving the survey, 1,000 responded. And 61 percent of the 1,000 said they did not like the retail selection available in Malibu. When asked what type of businesses they would like, the most common response-from 731 people specifically-was a specialty grocery store. The second highest request was a hardware/home improvement store (626), followed by restaurants (187).
Council to tackle stinky proposal
Also at next week’s meeting the council will try to tackle for a second time a proposed ordinance to require inspections of septic systems prior to the sale of property. The proposal first came before the council in February, but was set aside because of opposition from local Realtors. The council asked city staff members to meet with the Realtors so compromised language could be created. However, the president of the Malibu Association of Realtors, Christine Rodgerson, said she does not support the updated proposal, and plans to attend the meeting in opposition.
“The Malibu Association of Realtors has tried to work with the city to come up with an ordinance that is a workable document,” Rodgerson said in an interview on Tuesday. “And we don’t feel the city has elected to take into consideration any of our suggestions.”
Rodgerson declined to go in-depth on what she didn’t like about the proposal, but the staff report written by Malibu Environmental and Building Safety Manager Craig George gives some insight. According to his report, the Realtors disagreed on the city’s proposal for the name of the ordinance, the number of years prior to a home’s sale that an inspection must be done, how long a new homeowner has to get the septic system inspected if the previous owner did not follow the law and other details involving documentation. George wrote in his report that the city attempted to compromise with some of the requests by the Realtors, but did not consider other proposals. An example of compromise, George wrote, was the February proposal by the city that called for inspections of the septic systems to take place within a year prior to a sale, being changed to two years because the Realtors had requested it be three.
Lastly on Monday, the council will consider placing a measure on the April City Council election ballot to tax cell phones and Internet voice communication as utility user tax items. According to the staff report, the city generates approximately $961,000 of the $2.4 million tax through telephone usage. The report suggests that revenue is threatened because more people are using nontraditional telephone technology.