May
• The Malibu Planning Commission gave the go-ahead to begin construction on the Malibu Memorial Park, to be constructed on a plateau of land at the corner of PCH and Malibu Canyon. For many years, the site was to be the location for a 148-room Malibu Hotel, but after endless multi-year delays, and the prospect of substantial political and legal resistance to the hotel, the developer shifted gears and opted for a state-of-the-art memorial park.
• A Civic Center-area condominium caught fire in the early morning from causes unknown, and before the two story fire could be put out, the condo where the fire started was totally gutted and the adjacent condos on either side were substantially damaged from fire, water and smoke damage.
• The proposed splitting off of Malibu from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, with Malibu forming its own independent school district, hit a snag over the issue of how much alimony would be required before the district would agree to cut Malibu loose. Although the MUNC (a committee with three representatives from Santa Monica and three from Malibu) had been meeting for more than a year and working out a possible agreement, it still needed the approval of the school board, which balked. The new number might be closer to $100 million paid out over a period of years. The problem is that the value of Malibu real estate has exploded the last few years and the school board appears hesitant to let go of this cash cow unless they’re guaranteed a substantial portion of the milk in the next decades.
• The typically benign water of Malibu, which is usually free of Great White Sharks, is beginning to see some young Great White juvenile sharks (typically 3.5 to seven feet in length) in our water, close in to the surf line. The reasons are not quite clear, but one theory is that the warmer water, with its abundance of things to eat, is attracting the juvenile sharks to come closer and snack.
