City leaders will meet with state officials next week to promote the project and seek additional funding.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Santa Monica College District staff is recommending $2.5 million be given to the city of Malibu for the Legacy Park project. The college Board of Trustees will vote on the recommendation at its meeting on Monday.
The money for the project would come from the college district’s Measure S fund. Measure S is a $135 million facilities improvement bond measure approved by voters in 2004. The bond language requires $25 million be used for projects in Malibu. The college used $2.5 million to help with the 2006 municipal purchase of Legacy Park from the Malibu Bay Co. The remaining money is expected to go toward the purchase of land in Malibu where a classroom facility would be constructed. The district is in negotiation with the county to purchase the old City Hall in the Civic Center. (See related story below.)
“I’m extremely pleased that they’re moving forward with keeping their commitment with the bond language we voted overwhelmingly for,” City Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said this week about the staff recommendation. “It renews my faith in bond money going to where it says it’s going.”
A presentation on the proposal will take place this week on Wednesday at a meeting of the Malibu Public Facilities Authority, the committee consisting of City Council members and college trustees that oversees the Malibu portion of the Measure S bond money. Barovsky and Councilmember John Sibert are on the committee. The meeting takes place at City Hall at 5:30 p.m.
Legacy Park
The Legacy Park project is a two-fold plan to develop the 20-acre, city-owned property along Pacific Coast Highway between Webb Way and Cross Creek Road into a park, and to increase the city’s storm water management as a method to reduce the pollution of the city’s watershed. This would prevent the Regional Water Quality Control Board from handing down fines.
City officials are estimating the cost of the project at $12.5 million to $15 million. So far, the city has $3.5 million in the bank, Administrative Services Director Reva Feldman said. That includes $1 million from the county, a $2 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation and $500,000 from various donors. The Annenberg grant requires the city to match that amount in donations. Most of the $500,000 was collected prior to the announcement of the grant late last year, so it is not certain how much of the donations count toward the match.
The city has been successful with the state and federal grants it has applied for with the project. City grants coordinator Barbara Cameron said she and other city staff are in discussions with staff from the Coastal Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Board about grant possibilities. She said she is also speaking with State Water Resources Board officials about two other grant possibilities.
Next week, Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich and Barovsky will travel to Sacramento, along with several city staff members, to talk to heads of various state agencies about the project and other issues affecting Malibu, including fire emergencies and brush clearance.
Bonnie Reese, a Malibu resident and former advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will travel with the contingent. Her presence will come at no cost to the city as she plans to pay for her transportation and other expenses, Conley Ulich said.
“We’re really grateful that Bonnie Reese will be coming with us,” Conley Ulich said. “She is a concerned Malibu resident who wants to make sure our message gets across and we meet the right people.”
City Manager Jim Thorsen said not all the conversations will necessarily be about grants for the project.
“We’re always updating them [state officials] on the progress of Legacy Park and what a great project it is,” Thorsen said. “We continue to coordinate and to collaborate.”
If the city is unable to collect enough money through grants and donations to fund the project, it will most likely fill the gap through the selling of certificates of participation, or COPs, which are similar to bonds but do not require voter approval. The COPs would be paid off with the rent money the city receives from the three commercial structures on Legacy Park. The City Council in March instructed city staff to begin the process to set up the sale of COPs. A final approval of the sale would not be done until after the council approves the project sometime later this year.
The draft environmental impact report for the project was released in May. Written public comments and questions can be submitted until July 14. Those submissions will be included in the final EIR, which will go before the Planning Commission along with the project in the fall for a recommendation. The City Council will then vote on the project and the environmental document.
Workshops on the Legacy Park project hosted by city staff and consultants will take place at City Hall on July 9 at 6:30 p.m. and July 12 at 10 a.m. A copy of the DEIR can be found on the city’s Web site at www.ci.malibu.ca.us. Those wanting hard copies can order them at the Malibu Business & Shipping Center in Malibu Colony Plaza. CD versions are also available by contacting Robert Sanchez at 310.456.2489 ext. 296 or rsanchez@ci.malibu.ca.us. Comments and questions on the document should be submitted to Senior Planner Stephanie Danner at sdanner@ci.malibu.ca.us or by mail at 23815 Stuart Ranch Rd., Malibu, CA 90265.