I specifically wish to address this “Open Letter” to our Malibu senior citizens, Little League Baseball families, school program administrators and parents, Friends of the Library, our local Sheriff’s Department and firemen, as well as the city staff and council.
Mentioned are just a few of the many individuals and organizations that through the years have been the beneficiaries of generous financial contributions and/or donations of extraordinary food for various community activities and events by Daniel and Luciana Forge of the BeauRivage Restaurant.
After all of these years of their generosity, which has given so much joy and pleasure to the community, Daniel and Luciana now desperately need our friendship and support returned. Almost in their 80s, they have dreamed and looked forward to this day of finally building their very own modest bed and breakfast inn behind the restaurant. Following Planning Commission approval of the project, now most regretfully, a handful of individuals have come forward, attempting to wreck the Daniel and Luciana dream by opposing the creation of this bed and breakfast inn. They have virtually stopped the project.
Because of the personal attacks on Daniel and Luciana in past “Letters To The Editor”- and in my opinion, purposely misleading readers by providing incorrect project information-I am encouraging friends and supporters to learn the facts and attend the City Council public hearing on the Forge Lodge Bed and Breakfast Inn application at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 28, at the new City Hall, 23813 Stuart Ranch Rd. If unable to attend, please send your letters of support to City Council members.
As a 36-year resident of Malibu and a BeauRivage customer, I have taken this issue one step further. After having read and heard conflicting stories and the personal attacks concerning the Forge Lodge project, I took it upon myself to learn more about the specific details/facts regarding this requested bed and breakfast project. Three weeks ago, Daniel Forge, owner of BeauRivage Restaurant, escorted me on a walk covering every inch of the proposed Forge Lodge facility.
While walking the site, I observed that their modest bed and breakfast bungalows will be hidden from PCH view by the many surrounding trees. Realistically, the small number of guests and their cars using the bungalow parking spaces will not be a cause of traffic congestion or safety problems, as some suggest. Following my site review, I drove to the top of Corral Canyon and experienced the current high volume of speeding cars, delivery trucks and construction vehicles. Add that to the cars and buses that the National Park Service/Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy will be promoting to visit the soon-to-be-opened Solstice Creek Park, and there is the traffic problem. Interesting, but no one seems to be addressing or complaining about that obvious state sponsored nightmare-to-be!
Who should be purchasing the traffic signals for the PCH/Corral Canyon intersection? Common sense tells all of us that the National Park Service has the obvious obligation, or, at least continue the existing procedure that has provided traffic signals throughout the rest of Malibu. Don’t stick one of our own small, local restaurateurs with the tab as is being suggested.
From a practical and economic standpoint, every Malibu overnight guest facility, such as the Forge Lodge, will provide the community with a bonus source of income, i.e., the Innkeeper Transit and/or Bed Tax. With our local schools having to lay off teachers today, this is the opportunity to “find” this added source of revenue for the cause!
Following our walk together, I am convinced that common sense will show and prove that the Forge Lodge Bed and Breakfast Inn will have no significant impact, if any at all, on our Malibu environment. Hopefully our City Council will support the Forge Lodge application.
Jerry Jackson