After the attempted eviction of two of Malibu’s businesses, one a decades old nursery and the other a new small florist, Malibu residents took a stand and said, “No more, this is our town.“ Since then, thousands of Malibu citizens have signed petitions, demonstrated, attended meetings and spoken before the City Council to attempt to save small businesses in Malibu with some success. Now is the time for the council to do their part.
On May 9, 2011, the City Council heard an agenda item entitled “Growing and Sustaining Local and Community Serving Businesses,” which was attended by a large outpouring of Malibu’s citizens. After seeing eviction after eviction, citizens had become alarmed at the rapid decline in local and community-serving businesses. It was obvious that something had to be done to correct the situation and set Malibu on a path toward a business environment that allowed for a healthy retail and service sector mix for the citizens of Malibu, as well as for the many tourists who visit Malibu.
At that meeting, the City Council directed staff to hold two ZORACES meetings. Citizens again participated in both these meetings in large numbers and explored all options. Individual meetings were also held with the ZORACES members. At the time, the Chamber of Commerce sent two letters to its members, vowing to fight any and all regulation by the city.
The city then held a series of private meetings with the commercial developers and a small group of residents. The commercial developers were asked to develop a plan and to present it at these meetings, but in the end presented no plan.
Five months later, another City Council agenda item, “Growing and Sustaining Local and Community Serving Businesses,” came before an overflow council meeting (more than 300 citizens). At that time, the City Council directed staff to “prepare a draft commercial ordinance” and conduct public review. Staff held packed town hall-style meetings and members of Preserve Malibu met with staff and developers to attempt to develop a workable plan. The American Independent Business Alliance also conducted a well-attended “Strength in Numbers” seminar.
Preserve Malibu gathered thousands of signatures in favor of a diversification ordinance. Staff was presented with hundreds of pages of research, articles and interviews with planning directors from other cities and sample ordinances, as well as a proposed ordinance outline for commercial diversification and formula retail. The ordinance was drafted from not only citizen input, but also with input from Malibu City Council members.
On March 26, the City Council considered an agenda item “Growing and Sustaining Local Community Serving Businesses” for a third time. After many hours of citizen and staff input, the council voted to direct staff to prepare a diversification ordinance and bring it back to the council. After more than a year of effort, the citizens walked out of that meeting with the belief that finally something would be done. Eight months later, staff is presenting the City Council on Nov. 13 the staff report that was asked for on March 26.
All that has been received to date from the developer group is a “Retail Market Analysis” that discusses a fantasy view of the retail market in Malibu that purports that there is no problem with the Malibu retail climate. It does not even study the retail markets involved, mixes shopping center areas with highway retail, confuses retail uses, ignores the more than one million square feet of proposed retail and ignores the 15 million tourists that visit Malibu every year.
The letter claims that Malibu’s true market area consists of Malibu, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Hidden Hills and Topanga. It incredibly claims that those shoppers actually drive over the canyons from Westlake to shop in Malibu rather that the other way around. The letters are loaded with misinformation and fabrication.
For instance, the latest letter states a list of 28 Malibu businesses. In reality, four of those businesses listed are closed, six are the same business listed twice, and eight are not even retail uses. Fifteen out of 28 of the businesses listed can be discounted. This is a prime example of the many inaccuracies of their summary, obviously written by outside forces unfamiliar with Malibu.
Malibu has seen a continued and accelerating exodus of local-serving business and rapid rise in formula retail and tourist-serving businesses entering our main shopping areas. East Malibu will soon be affected with the recent purchase of the Malibu Sands Center (Thai Foods, etc.) by a New York conglomerate, it is only a matter of time before the services businesses there will be moved out.
Unfortunately, in the last few months, the loss of more businesses has again alarmed the citizens of Malibu. In the next few weeks residents have been told to expect the eviction of yet another well-known local business. Chains are rapidly flooding our main shopping areas (Chipotle, Lanvin, Sephora, Rip Curl, Quick Silver, etc.). Preserve Malibu has continued to provide staff with input from experts, local citizens have signed petitions and demonstrated in support of local businesses. Our shopping centers have become more unbalanced with the developers’ own study showing that Malibu has 143% of the food and beverage stores it needs, 174% of the clothing stores it needs and 194% of the food service and drinking places it needs.
Now, on Nov. 13, almost two years and half a dozen city meetings after the process began, the City Council will again address the problem with a renamed agenda item entitled “Commercial Diversification and Local Serving Businesses.” The City Attorney has given the council a legal analysis that allows the council to proceed. Nothing in the proposed “diversification ordinance” or “retail ordinance” has been declared illegal and in fact the proposal has been carefully compared to many cities in the United States that have acted with fully legal ordinances to provide their citizens with a well balanced retail base and have protected the character of their city. Malibu’s general plan provides the justification for all aspects of the proposal. Malibu citizens and the staff have been very careful to respect the needs of the commercial landlords.
Because all existing businesses will be grandfathered, not a single current business will be affected. The ordinance should use the date that the City Council agrees to write the ordinance as the effective start date for all provisions to avoid a rush to fill vacant buildings with noncompliant tenants before the ordinance takes effect. The Coastal Commission allows cities to adopt ordinances stricter than their codes and the ordinance need not wait for Coastal Commission approval, as is the case with the hillside ordinance. The proposal affords the right of review with the Planning Commission and the City Council and exempts all but those businesses deemed not out of balance from review.
What is required of the City Council is to carefully review the staff report and consider what it will take to restore a healthy retail balance as the city adds an extraordinary one million square feet of development. What is required of the City Council is to provide a level playing field that will allow local serving businesses to survive and provide vital services to the citizens of Malibu before they are eliminated. Retail diversification is essential for a healthy city and that is the very purpose and job of any city’s planning department, to ensure a well-planned city for its residents.
While absolutely vital, formula retail ordinances do not protect diversification. Formula retail ordinances are necessary in a city like Malibu to keep it from becoming just another cookie cutter tourist town and to encourage independent businesses. Malibu is unique and must stay that way. Both a Formula Retail Ordinance and a Diversification Ordinance are required for a unique and healthy balance in Malibu. A Formula Retail Ordinance helps modify the proliferation of chain stores clogging Malibu’s centers. Diversification protects the most basic of residents shopping needs and services. The citizens of Malibu realize this and have repeatedly demonstrated their desire for you to act with these necessary protections.
We are asking that you, our representatives, step up to the plate after almost two years and pass the diversification ordinance along with the formula retail ordinance to protect the needs of all the citizens of Malibu. We ask that you also include the retail centers of West Malibu. There is no doubt that the citizens want and need protection and expect you to act now. Time is running out to correct this imbalance. The citizens have waited long enough.