Contentious school board hearings, Malibu Lagoon battles, a lonely nursery and new faces at the California Coastal Commission were just some of the events that defined 2011 in Malibu. Malibu Times Publisher Arnold York captures all the highs and lows of a very interesting year.
By Arnold York / Publisher
January
The Malibu Film Society opens the local film season with the Academy Award contender “The King’s Speech,” which goes on to take Best Picture and Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Director for Tom Hooper, and Best Original Screenplay by David Seidler at the Academy Awards.
Closed since Dec. 18, Pacific Coast Highway on the western end of Malibu from Yerba Buena Road and Las Posas Road in Ventura County briefly reopens on Dec. 28, but then immediately closes because of unstable conditions.
Tim Cuneo, then-superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, speaks out at a Los Angeles County Office of Education hearing in opposition to the move to turn Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School into a charter school. It is the first of many clashes during a year in which the school board and the citizens of Malibu are frequently at loggerheads.
A pod of five to eight Orca whales, seldom seen off the Malibu coast, comes within a mile of the Malibu surf line. The captain of the whale-watching boat says “they are rare around here”; in fact, he’s 60 years old and has never seen them locally. The whales, which have a reputation for sometimes being aggressive, don’t appear shy about approaching the boat. “Contrary to running away from us, they let us approach, and hung around the boat … they showed great curiosity about us,” says one observer.
Former California Senate President Pro Tem John Burton blasts Malibu local and longtime California Coastal Commissioner Sarah Wan for a power play that double-crossed Mary Shallenberger, her longtime political ally on the commission, so Wan could regain the commission chair for herself. Wan obviously miscalculated, because when she comes up for reappointment in May, the current Senate Pro Tem Darryl Steinberg appoints someone else and Wan is off the commission after 15 years. (See Arnold York’s column, Opinion page)
February
After a contentious hearing in January, the staff of the L.A. County Office of Education (LACOE) recommends against the petition to turn Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School into a charter school. At the next meeting the LACOE board itself follows its staff’s recommendation and unanimously turns thumbs down on the petition.
The school district apparently wants to keep Point Dume in the school system, but doesn’t appear to be too anxious to keep up the maintenance. Malibu parents charge that the classrooms are cold because the Point Dume school has been without central heating since Oct. 2010 because of a faulty gas pipeline that the district planned to replace in the summer.
Malibu mom and law student Kristina Kell sets off to compete in CBS “Survivor: Redemption Island” series against 17 other hopefuls for a chance to “outwit, outplay and outlast” everyone and take the $1 million prize. She spends four months training for the competition.
The 2011 Malibu Times Dolphins / Citizens of the Year Awardees are announced:
– Shelby Basso, operator of the Malibu Garden Center
– Zareh and Seda Baghdasarian, owners of Chocolate Box Cafe
– Rod Bergen, President of Trancas Riders and Ropers
– Dick Van Dyke, actor, comedian, volunteer
– Steve and Deborah Cole, major supporters of local music programs
– Violet Miehle, Malibu HS Senior
– Justine Petretti, city commissioner and volunteer
– Robyn Ross, PTA President, volunteer
– Ray Singer, lifetime volunteer
March
The street curb in front of the construction on PCH where Larry Ellison is building two new restaurants is mysteriously painted red overnight, with no public notice given. It turns out that the city and Caltrans both gave their OK to workers at the site to paint the curb for the duration of the construction period so heavy equipment can get in and out.
Another hot potato is Busch Drive in western Malibu, where the city charges that over the years a number of homeowners have slowly encroached into the public right-of-way by planting trees, installing mailboxes and building fences. The city wants everyone to move back eight feet for safety reasons. Homeowners insist the problem isn’t visibility but rather fast driving.
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Japan causes incredible devastation in the island nation and sends a tsunami across the Pacific. Fears are raised of widespread destruction on the West Coast, but Malibu manages to dodge the bullet. Three-foot surges and strong currents hit local beaches, but there is no damage.
The results of the new federal census are published, and although the population in Malibu has only increased by 70 residents over the last ten years the median home values in Malibu doubled in that same time period. The 2010 population stands at 12,645 with 6,864 housing units. The upshot is Malibu is adding roughly 73.8 housing units per year, most of which are single-family homes, while the rest are apartments and condominiums. Digging deeper into the numbers, it turns out that of the 738 housing units built in the last ten years approximately 600 are second homes, which is why the population of Malibu is static.
The surprise results of a county-sponsored health survey show that the rate of tobacco sales and attempted sales to minors in Malibu is five times higher then the statewide 7.7 percent. The survey is part of a larger county effort to cut down the use of tobacco by minors.
April
Rick Wallace does an update and a comparison of the values of the Malibu real estate market from the Year of 2000 to April of 2010.
The Malibu City Council votes to support the Pepperdine University campus expansion, on the condition that the university pays for an additional sheriff’s deputy, due to fears of additional public safety costs resulting from the development. The project proposes nearly 400,000 square feet of new development on 365 acres of existing land. It would add 468 beds, and expand the stadium by 2,000 square feet to 5,470 seats with outdoor lighting. However, there is little the city can do about it since Pepperdine is actually outside of the city limits and must answer legally only to the county Board of Supervisors. This fact is borne out when the board approves the project but ignores the city’s request, which irks several on the city council.
May
The preliminary results of a US Geological Survey seem to indicate that septic systems are not to blame for the contamination of the Malibu Lagoon and coastal waters. The results, if correct, are significant because the actions taken by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board mandating Malibu clean up the pollution may be resting on some earlier questionable scientific grounds. Mark Gold, President of Heal the Bay, takes a somewhat more skeptical view of the new survey data and basically says it’s too early to tell. (See Arnold York’s second column, and Rick Wallace updates, Opinion page)
Two issues on the west end of town stir controversy and create a thrust for action. A major fracas ensues when, after a change in ownership in the Trancas Mall, the much-beloved Trancas Canyon Nursery is given a 30-day eviction notice in late April. The notice results in a political drive called “Save Trancas Nursery,” leading to a petition signed by 2,000 neighbors and friends to try and reverse the process and to convince the new owners that the eviction isn’t a good idea.
Broad Beach, long one of Malibu’s sandiest beaches, has significantly eroded to the point that a major private project by the homeowners is underway to try to reverse the beach erosion. The overall construction cost is estimated to be $10 million, with an additional $2-3 million for the permitting process. The beach has been eroding for many years due to weather patterns and rising sea levels that have worsened significantly according to the experts.
June
Governor Jerry Brown in his state budget calls for the sale of the 22-acre “Ramirez Canyon” property, formerly the home of Barbra Streisand which she had donated to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy for an environmental think tank. The think tank was short-lived, and the former Streisand Center now serves as the rather palatial headquarters of the Conservancy. The governor’s budget says it should be sold because” it serves no state programmatic need.” Local homeowners hail the decision, the Conservancy abhors it, but even Streisand says she understands the necessity for the possible sale due to the states budget situation
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School district appoints Sandra Lyon as the district’s fourth new superintendent in seven years. John Deasy, now the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, served from 2004 to 2007, Dianne Talarico the next two years and then Tim Cuneo, under whose stewardship the relationship with Malibu grew rather rocky. It’s unclear what makes the district an attractive one to come to and an even more attractive one to leave.
The California Coastal Commission rejects an application by U2 guitarist David Evans, known as the Edge, and several associates and friends, to build four luxury homes on 156 acres overlooking Serra Canyon, by a vote of 8 to 4. Evans and his associates are considering a lawsuit.
The winners of The Malibu Times Citizenship Awards, for students graduating from Malibu Schools who are nominated by faculty in large part for their community contributions to others, are to:
– Sara Mohr, Malibu High School
– Max Gorelick, Malibu High School
– Chelsea Bostwick, Our Lady of Malibu School
– Olivia Thonson, Pt. Dume Marine Science Elementary School
– Moorea Morrison, Webster Elementary School
– Delancy Murdock, Webster Elementary School
– Sonny Thatcher, Juan Cabrillo Elementary School
July
Independence Day weekend brings about 700,000 visitors to Malibu. Word is there were four barges filled with fireworks off the Malibu coast, and the locals and visitors all get out their beach chairs for the 4th of July festivities.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge voids the controversial Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) plan for overnight camping in Malibu, which had been approved by the California Coastal Commission. In a rare rebuke of a powerful state agency, the judge finds that the Coastal Commission “had exceeded its authority” when it approved the SMMC application against the cities’ wishes. Almost immediately the attorneys for both SMMC and the Coastal Commission file an appeal of the judge’s decision.
The Malibu Beach Team, which patrols Corral Beach and Zuma Beach in summer months, keeps the beaches safe but at a cost of $500,000 to the City of Malibu. The beaches are owned by the County of Los Angeles, which doesn’t share in the cost of policing the beaches, the source of some grumbling by the city.
August
Malibu mom Tracy Birdsall-Smith, at age 48, makes the finals in the prestigious modeling agency Wilhelmina Models nationwide search for 40+ models. The mother of three was a bikini model as a teenager, an actress for many years and is now back to modeling for a growing demand for 40+ models.
Malibu actor Francesco Quinn dies suddenly from a reported heart attack while walking on a neighborhood street with his son. Lean and athletic, an avid cyclist, Quinn was 48.
HOWS Trancas Market closes. A community fixture since 1999, the market had previously been Alexander’s Market. HOWS was founded by an heir of the Hughes supermarket family and three other partners.
The City of Malibu struggles with the state Housing Element requirement that they zone enough land to handle 188 new low- and very-low income units. The requirement means zoning of 20 units per acre, significantly denser than any other portion of the city. After protests, the city decides that the 30-acre Trancas Field property is out as a site for the zoning of the possible housing.
September
A divided school board votes 5-2 to continue giving the kids a choice to keep chocolate milk on its school menus, although parents can still opt out their children from drinking flavored (meaning chocolate) milk. Nutritionists groan. Libertarians cheer defeat of the Nanny state.
Malibu, which for many years past was a favorite landing place for smugglers, has once again become a destination of choice: not for illegal whiskey but for today’s cash crops, marijuana and illegal immigrants. An abandoned smuggling boat is found just north of Leo Carrillo with 250 pounds of marijuana. The previous week, ten Mexican nationals are apprehended in Malibu after a 12-hour sail from Mexico in a small 25-foot, open-air boat. The unsuccessful voyage is estimated to cost each passenger between $3,000 and $4,000.
Victims of 9/11 are remembered at Pepperdine with an all-day program and a sea of American flags, along with several flags for the foreign nationals that died in the World Trade Center towers in New York City.
Peter Douglas, the longtime Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission, leaves after 26 years due to health reasons and is replaced by Charles Lester, who has worked at the commission since 1997. Douglas leaves his stamp on the California coastline, for both what is there and what never got built. City officials in Malibu, which in the past had an often contentious relationship with the Commission, were optimistic about the change. City Attorney Christi Hogin said, “While he (Lester) is obviously a part of the administration of the Coastal Commission, I found him to be a very straight shooter, someone who took the time to really understand the issues that were being raised by the coastal cities.” Recent reports are that with the retirement of Douglas and the departure of some former members of the commission, particularly Malibu’s Sara Wan, the relationship between the commission and the city has improved measurably.
The recession arrives at the doorstep of the City of Malibu, and city officials say Malibu needs more revenue and less spending. Debt payments on the new city hall begin next fiscal year, and some predict that the current $236,000 surplus could turn into a $677,000 deficit.
October
The city council is struggling with what everyone calls the decline of locally owned stores and the sad disappearance of the Mom and Pop stores. All seem to agree that we want to retain the Mom and Pops, but that’s about where the consensus ends. Some want to exclude chains, some to allow greater commercial density to allow for some lower rents, some to require centers set aside low commercial rent areas. The business community is also divided, so the city does what cities do: They direct a staff study. Then the council proposes some retail restrictions, the business community explodes in protest and it all goes back for further study.
Local Burt Sperber, 82, passes away. Together with his wife Charlene, Sperber started in business in a small nursery with a few employees and built it into ValleyCrest Landscape Companies, with 150 locations around the world and 9,000 employees and hundreds of millions in annual revenue. He was noted for his multiple philanthropies, his legendary knowledge of magic and his offbeat sense of humor, referring to himself not as the CEO or Chairman but as the “head gardener.”
Another well-known Malibu resident, Rhoda-May Adamson Dallas, passes away. Dallas, 94, was a member of the founding Adamson family and granddaughter of the early Malibu pioneers Fred Hastings Rindge and Mary Knight Rindge, the last owners of the Malibu Rancho before it opened to the public in 1925, followed by the Roosevelt Highway (now Pacific Coast Highway) three years later.
After an extensive investigation, the Consumer Protection and Safety Division of the California Public Utilities Commission decides that Southern California Edison and four telephone companies are responsible for the 2007 Malibu Canyon fire that destroyed the Presbyterian Church, the Lilly Lawrence castle and a number of other structures, and concludes they should all be fined a total of $99.2 million. The matter now goes to the Public Utilities Commission for a hearing and a final determination.
November
A San Francisco Superior Court judge rejects a challenge by three environmental groups trying to block the California State Parks plan to reshape the Malibu Lagoon, adjacent to the Malibu Colony. The plan will probably begin early next summer unless an appeals court steps in to stay the process. One of the first things to go will be three bridges used for years by pedestrians, birdwatchers and surfers as a pathway to the beach. The state has no plans to replace the bridges
Two student suicides in the Malibu area at the end of the month put local parents and schools on alert. One is a 21-year-old former Agoura High School student who jumps to his death from the top of the 100-foot high Rindge Dam in Malibu Creek, and the other a 17-year-old Agoura High student who authorities believe intentionally drove his car off Piuma Road near Cold Canyon. Since suicide can sometimes be almost like a contagious disease among teenagers, local schools and faculty go on alert for signs of stress and depression in the student body.
The school board, after several contentious meetings and protests, decides unanimously to change the district’s rules for fundraising contributions. The changes, when fully implemented, will require that fundraising in the district be centralized so all the schools can share in the monies raised from parents and corporations. Opponents charge that if parents can no longer give to their local schools, the effect will be to drive down contributions and accelerate student flight to private schools in the wealthier neighborhoods. The school board move seems to have revitalized the Malibu movement to form our own school district.
December
Quick and courageous action by Grant Ibrahim, a 53-year-old Hermosa Beach resident, helps save a 30-year-old woman and her two children ages 7 and 4. Ibrahim pulls them out of their overturned Nissan Pathfinder after it is struck in a head-on collision in western Malibu with a Dodge Viper that may have been racing.
The ever-controversial view ordinance goes back before the city council, which splits between those who want to restore the views going forward from today and those who want the views rolled back to when Malibu became a city in 1991 or when the home was purchased. Councilmember John Sibert appears to be the swing vote in the battle. The city is trying to write an enforceable ordinance without getting sucked into all of the litigation that generally follows if the ordinance tries to restore sometimes 20-year-old views.
The Malibu political season begins with three seats opening up on the city council. Incumbents John Sibert and Jefferson Wagner are both running but the third seat is wide open, as Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich is term-limited and cannot run again. Two former councilmembers, Joan House, who is a current planning commissioner, and Missy Zeitsoff, from the first Malibu council 20 years ago, have expressed interest in running. Neither is termed out because their service was before the term limits ordinance.