Protestors plead to stop garden center eviction

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A growing grassroots movement to stop the eviction of the Trancas Canyon Nursery is using the Internet and petitions for their cause. A councilmember reintroduces the idea of a retail ordinance to stop “Rodeo Driving” of Malibu.

By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times

A large group of residents dead set against the impending eviction of the Trancas Canyon Nursery, also known as Malibu Gardens Nursery, pleaded with the City Council Monday night to put an end to the looming closure of the longtime Trancas mall fixture.

Armed on the Internet with a Facebook page and in person with a 900-signature petition declaring their support of the longtime garden center and meeting place, members of “Save Trancas Nursery” dominated the meeting’s public comment period. Among other sentiments, the residents claim that there could be some illegality behind the 30-day notice recently served to the business by the Trancas mall property owners.

Resident Brian Eamer’s comment voiced the overall sentiment of those present Monday night: “The pending eviction of the nursery is tragic.”

The newest but still unconfirmed information to emerge from the meeting is that the proposed expansion of the Trancas mall violates a coastal development agreement with the city, which supposedly mandates for the nursery to remain open and operating.

“The project was contingent upon keeping the nursery as is,” resident Cindy Vandor said, stating, “the city must demand answers now.”

Council members informally but unanimously backed the group, with Mayor John Sibert instructing city staff to look further into the matter.

“When we approved [the market’s expansion], we said the same thing,” Sibert said. “The nursery had to stay. It seems to me there’s a [coastal development permit] there … Can they just change that CDP? I don’t think so.”

The $20-million project intends to nearly double the shopping center’s 27,695-square foot size, adding two new parking lots, two restaurants and new stores, and an on-site alternative wastewater treatment plant.

The identities of the shopping center’s new owners, who succeeded the Trancas Market Limited Partners after that group bowed out in April 2010, remain a mystery. Local resident Dan Bercu was tied to the project for some time. Ken Karasiuk, owner of Envy Medical in Westlake Village, is another new name to emerge as one possible stakeholder. Bercu and Karasiuk did not return repeated phone calls for comment on this story.

It is also unclear what part they played in crafting the abrupt notice, served on nursery owners Debbi Stone and Carlos Cabrera, by Kibo Property Management. A representative at Kibo’s Santa Monica offices said last Friday that he could not confirm or deny anything.

Douglas Burdge, the principal architect on the project, said by phone on Tuesday that he hasn’t been privy to details of the eviction or how many development partners have ultimately been involved with the process. However, Burdge said he has corresponded with the nursery owners directly and that a meeting to review the design of the proposed mall will take place this week.

“I shop there too,” Burdge said. “I don’t want a crazy situation where we lose all our locals. I’m all for keeping this together. I hope I can be not just an architect, but a neighbor, too, on this.”

Stone and Cabrera’s acquisition and name change of the former Malibu Gardens Nursery (which has also been called the Malibu Garden Center) last August wasn’t without baggage; allegedly, its previous owners owed back lease for more than a year. According to prior reports from The Malibu Times, Stone and Cabrera offered to pay the overdue rent, but, they said, their requests were denied.

Stone, interviewed by phone Tuesday morning, said she remains positive of the future of the nursery and has been working with the property’s landlords, though she couldn’t comment on any specifics.

“We want to work together and want to stay. It seems like they’re getting more receptive to that idea,” she said. “I feel like the tide is turning, I do.”

Big box chain store ordinance reintroduced

The nursery’s possible ejection prompted residents to speak out against a larger issue at hand: the slow commercial decline, a “Rodeo Driving,” of Malibu in the past decade. Carla McCloskey, a core member and co-organizer of the Save Trancas supporters, recited a litany of small businesses that have downscaled significantly or closed altogether, unable to keep up with higher leases or stiff competition from larger chain names.

Adding the Trancas nursery to that list, it was agreed by those at the meeting, would be the biggest casualty to that list.

“I think it has to do with protecting this last vestige of the remaining Malibu,” said group organizer Susan Stiffelman. “It’s irreplaceable.”

“I have a concern about the profile of the city, the way it’s changed,” said Nancy Rosenquist, who, noting its contribution to the “real Malibu,” already spoke of the garden center in a past tense. “The nursery was one of those places you could sit and not worry about the cares of the day.”

Following public comment, Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich announced that she would reintroduce a formula retail ordinance to the city’s Zoning Ordinance Revisions and Code Enforcement Subcommittee, or ZORACES. The ordinance, intended to preserve so called mom-and-pop stores, would limit the amount of chain stores (businesses with more than 13 locations) in the neighborhood commercial districts of Las Flores, Point Dume and Trancas.

Ulich had previously championed a similar ordinance two years ago, but it was defeated by a 4-1 council vote.

Following a private meeting amongst group members last Friday, where media was excluded from attending, the Save Trancas Nursery group is also gearing up for a public rally on Sunday, May 1, 11 a.m. at the garden center. This Friday, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the group will invite neighborhood children to Malibu West to make and paint signage for the Sunday event. The group’s email is savetrancasnursery@gmail.com.