One of the three partners with holdings in the development has listed their share in the development at $20 million.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
One of three partners invested in the renovation and expansion of a shopping center at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Trancas Canyon Road last week listed their share in the center for sale.
La Salle Investment Management listed an offering price of $20 million after growing weary of appeals and lawsuits filed against Trancas Country Market by some residents and environmental activists opposed to the project, partner and developer Dan Bercu said Monday.
“Hopefully we’ll get the right partner, preferably someone in Malibu who wants to own it long term, [who] has patience and determination to get through all the obstacles,” Bercu said Monday in a telephone interview.
The long road of approval for the expansion of Trancas Country Market has been a controversial one, with supporters and opponents arguing over size limitations, parking, emergency access and environmental concerns, in addition to the noise and traffic mitigation.
Three appeals have been filed against the project: one by the Malibu West Homeowners Association-which was denied by the Malibu City Council upon its approval of the development in January-and two by local community activist Hans Laetz.
After his first appeal was denied, Laetz filed a lawsuit against the Malibu Planning Commission’s approval of the project last year, but the suit was dismissed in January of this year by the Los Angeles Superior Court due to “lack of legal sufficiency,” and because the council had not yet approved the project.
Laetz last month filed his second appeal against Trancas Country Market, challenging the city council’s approval of the shopping center expansion.
The appeal is under review by the California Coastal Commission, which will hold a hearing on the matter no sooner than April, Laetz and commission staff said earlier this month. Bercu, however, on Monday said the matter would be discussed by the commission no sooner than June.
Laetz, in a phone interview earlier this month, said his decision to file a second lawsuit against the project is pending on the outcome of the Coastal Commission’s review of the appeal.
Laetz has alleged numerous violations of state law by the city in his appeal. Among the allegations made by Laetz is that more extensive analysis is required to determine the environmental impacts of the nearly 26,000-square-foot expansion, especially on the adjacent Trancas Lagoon. Laetz, in the appeal, claims that an environmental impact report, or EIR, is needed. (An environmental impact report is the highest form of analysis done for major developments in this state.)
Stefanie Edmondson, the city’s principal planner, said in a prior interview with The Malibu Times that a mitigated negative declaration, or MND, which involves less analysis than an EIR, was conducted for the project. She explained that an EIR is written only if environmental impacts from an initial study cannot be mitigated. As of yet, the proposed development’s mitigated negative declaration states that no such impacts exist, she said.
Laetz, however, called the MND “inadequate.”
Described by Bercu as “a shopping center created by locals, for locals,” the project will add 25,728 square feet of commercial space to the existing 27,695 square foot shopping center; a new parking lot north of the Chevron gas station; a new public parking lot north of HOW’S supermarket; and an on-site alternative wastewater treatment system.
The resolution adopted by the council includes conditional use permits for two new restaurants, La Spiagga, an Italian restaurant run by the same restaurateur who operates Tra di Noi, and another restaurant called Malibu Diner. The project application also includes a proposal to enhance Trancas Creek by replanting native vegetation along its banks.