Task Force Analyzes Future of Civic Center

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Malibu City Hall

Ever wonder what Malibu’s Civic Center will look like in the next 10, 20 years and beyond? The Civic Center Design Standards Task Force held its first meeting last week on Tuesday at City Hall to discuss just that. 

The main problem, according to the task force and community feedback, is that no Civic Center design standards have ever been created or implemented by the city. In the absence of such design standards, the city handles the approval of each Civic Center development on a case-by-case basis. As a result, stakeholders say, the Civic Center does not function as a center where the members of the community can gather for social or cultural activities. 

“I want the Civic Center to be a place where locals want to hang out, not just a place visitors and tourists go to hang out,” said task force member Brittany Stephens.

In 2014, the City Council tasked the Planning Department with establishing a set of Civic Center Design Standards as the first phase of a long-term goal of creating a Civic Center Specific Plan. To complete the project, the City Council appointed a 10-member task force that is working with the city’s design team, MIG Consultants and John Kaliski Architects to prepare a set of design standards to enhance the Civic Center area.

 The Civic Center is located in eastern Malibu and bordered by Pacific Coast Highway, Webb Way, Civic Center Way and Cross Creek Road. It is comprised of five shopping centers (Malibu Country Mart, Malibu Lumber Yard, Cross Creek Courtyard, Malibu Village and Malibu Colony Plaza), four proposed projects (Sycamore Village development, Whole Foods development, Rancho Malibu development and the Civic Center Wastewater Treatment Facility), and one approved project (La Paz development). Malibu Public Library, Malibu Courthouse and the future Santa Monica College satellite campus are also part of the Civic Center. 

The challenge in creating these design standards is defining what they are. The task force spent much of its first meeting discussing prospective design standard objectives and agreed they should create a greater sense of connectivity between individual developments, and emphasize walkability and pedestrian orientation over automobile orientation. 

“What Malibu is projecting right now based on current regulations is fundamentally a completely generic suburban landscape … a bunch of standalone developments that people drive their cars by,” principal architect John Kaliski said. “One reason the Civic Center isn’t as good as it could be is because it’s automobile-oriented. It’s a car experience, which is private. The civic experience [should be] about a surprise of random encounters with people you know or people you want to meet.”

To create a sense that the Civic Center is a local space and to showcase Malibu’s natural beauty, the task force proposes creating more local pathways, major path crossings, orienting buildings to local pathways, providing view presentations, improving parking and connecting Civic Center nodes. 

“Malibu Creek should be a major walkway,” task force member Richard Sperber suggested. 

Some task force members expressed concern over the city’s ability to implement, apply and enforce such design standards because such a significant amount of development already exists in the Civic Center, the majority of it situated on privately owned land. 

“A more [pedestrian-friendly] feel makes this a homier place,” Sperber said. “If we have connectivity, it helps developers with their projects. There’s a way to talk to land owners to say, ‘this is what Malibu wants.’ We want it to be quaint; we want it to be our home. If done right, I’d be proud to give a piece of my land for public use.”

The task force is also faced with the question of what incentivizes or forces property owners to respect implementing connectivity.

“It is to property owners’ advantage to encourage foot traffic,” said architect and task force member Ed Niles.

Although much of the Civic Center is comprised of existing developments, the task force unanimously agrees on the high value of creating a set of standards that all Civic Center projects should meet. 

“I think there should be a master plan,” task force member Kell said. “I think it’s really easy for development to get away from us and we should make a design standard now before it’s too late for our community.”

“Things get rebuilt over generations, so be positive about that,” Kaliski said to the task force. “Building cities isn’t about winning every project, it’s about the accumulation of projects over time. Building towns doesn’t happen overnight.”

A date for the next Civic Center Design Task Force meeting has not yet been set. Next steps include gathering more information on trails and data, hosting a design session, identifying property easements, and possibly creating an online site for the public to contribute their thoughts.