Lumber store submits application to rent Coldwell Banker building
Anawalt Lumber store has submitted an application to the City of Malibu to lease the former Coldwell Banker building at the northeast corner of Webb Way and Pacific Coast Highway.
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich confirmed the application submission Tuesday in a telephone interview. Reva Feldman, the city’s administrative services director, said she could not confirm or comment on any aspect of the application because it is in the proposal process.
Conley Ulich said the application was submitted to the city “a few Fridays ago.” Although she said she has not yet seen the actual application, Conley Ulich said she had heard the proposal is considered “too low.”
Anawalt Lumber in 2005 was slated to take over the Malibu Lumberyard property on the Chili Cook-Off site, but negotiations between Anawalt and Chili Cook-Off site owner Malibu Bay Co. reportedly fell through due to the rent amount and Malibu Bay’s requirement for Anawalt to install a new septic tank.
Malibu man pleads not guilty to felony charges
A Malibu man accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old Santa Monica College female student in the campus library pleaded not guilty to felony charges Thursday of last week, according to a report issued by the Santa Monica Daily Press.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Chase Guy Reynolds, 40, with two counts of sexual battery by restraint, one count of attempted sexual penetration by a foreign object and one count of second degree robbery in the alleged incident on April 4, the report states.
He faces up to 13 years in state prison if found guilty. He is due back in court on May 13 to set his preliminary hearing.
GreenMachine celebrates ground-breaking
The MalibuGreenMachine on April 8 celebrated the ground-breaking of its Highway Enhancement Project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by city officials, large donors of the project and members of the community at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Webb Way.
Official construction on the median, located on the highway between Cross Creek Road and Webb Way, began March 23.
With a six-week construction schedule, MalibuGreenMachine aims to complete the project before Memorial Day weekend.
Currently, unsuitable soil is being removed from the median. The next stage is installation of the main lines of the irrigation system, followed by the addition of topsoil. The very last step is the planting of thousands of plants.
“It’s very gratifying to drive by and see what we started actually being built,” said Jo Giese, president and founder of MalibuGreenMachine, the nonprofit that is spearheading the privately funded $750,000 project, the largest of its kind in Malibu’s history. More information can be obtained by visiting MalibuGreenMachine.org.
Holocaust remembrance screening Sunday
“Blessed Is the Match,” the first documentary feature about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc, will be shown at Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue on Sunday at 7 p.m.
Narrated by Joan Allen, “Blessed Is the Match” tells the story of Senesh, who leaves Palestine in 1944 to join a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary. She parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed by the Nazis. Her mother Catherine witnessed the entire ordeal-first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed-out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter.
With unprecedented access to the Senesh family archive, and through interviews, eyewitness accounts and the writings of Hannah and Catherine Senesh, “Blessed Is the Match” recreates Hannah’s mission and imprisonment. The film explores Hannah’s childhood against the backdrop of significant historical events, resulting in a rich portrait with several interlocking strands.
The film also shows British-controlled Palestine and explores how the Kibbutz Movement drew Hannah and other idealistic Jews there in the hopes of building a Jewish state. Israeli President Shimon Peres, who knew Hannah as a young pioneer in the 1940s, appears in the film.
More information can be obtained by calling 310.456.2178.
Planning Commission to decide on second pot shop
The Planning Commission at its May 5 meeting will decide whether or not to issue a permit to allow a second marijuana dispensary to operate in Malibu.
In addition to a conditional use permit, Green Angel Collective, a marijuana pharmacy, has submitted an application to the city requesting a variance to operate within 1,000 feet of a park. Its proposed location, 21355 Pacific Coast Highway, is within that distance from Las Flores Park.
Before the city council approved the first dispensary, PCH Collective, several months ago, it passed an ordinance allowing pot dispensaries to operate on all commercially zoned sites under conditional use permits.
After controversy over how many dispensaries should be allowed to operate within city limits, the council settled on three. Additionally, the city implemented regulations on certain locations such as parks, schools and places of worship.
The proposed location of Green Angel Collective could cause the Planning Commission to deny it a CUP, unless it grants the dispensary its requested variance.
-Olivia Damavandi