The Civic Center Wastewater Treatment Facility is on a roll this spring. After receiving unanimous support from the California Coastal Commission (CCC) in May, it has now crossed three more hurdles on its way to a seemingly inevitable construction start date set for later this year.
Since 2010, when state and regional water boards determined the Civic Center would need a sewer plant, the project has been limping forward, impaired by community resistance but supported by environmental nonprofits and the City of Malibu.
Now, following back-to-back City Council meetings on Monday evening, the project will soon have land upon which to build, loans and bonds to pay for construction, and Malibu Municipal Code (MMC) amendments to make it legal.
Land Acquisition
The City Council accepted and filed proposed terms to the tune of $4 million for the purchase of land for the sewer plant, known as the Winter Canyon Property, which is being sold by the Malibu Bay Company.
The Malibu Bay Company is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the City over implementation of the Measure R formula retail ordinance.
Malibu City Attorney Christi Hogin explained that the price of the property has been estimated at two vastly different amounts, based on two perspectives on the estimated value of the land.
“There are not a lot of comparables … so it’s very hard to come up with a good valuation,” Hogin explained. “You would be shocked at the differences between the two.”
The first valuation, Hogin said, is based on a property with the “panache of Malibu, right here in the Civic Center, one of the rare, commercially zoned lots in the City.”
The other valuation takes into account that the property is “filled with septic pits,” “hidden” and “dangerous to get to.”
Hogin said there was a “seven million dollar difference in the two appraisers’ opinions.”
“We just want to pay a fair price, and, ultimately, it’s the assessment district that’s going to pay for this.”
The motion to receive and file the proposed terms passed with a 4-0 vote. Councilmember Peak abstained from voting on the motion.
Assessment District
Council voted unanimously 5-0 to form an assessment district for the Civic Center Wastewater Treatment Facility. The assessment district, in the words of Assistant City Manager Reva Feldman, is “a way for the property owners in the district to finance the construction and design of a facility.”
“The law requires that each property receive a special benefit from the project,” Feldman said. In other words, each of the 57 parcels in the Civic Center will benefit from the sewer.
The total estimated cost for phase one of the project is estimated to total $39.7 million, all of which will be paid for by property owners in the assessment district, by paying the whole cost up-front or over the course of 30 years of property taxes.
After the formation of the assessment district, Feldman predicts the project will move along quickly.
“We are trucking along, moving right along on schedule — a very aggressive schedule,” Feldman said. “Hopefully, by October we’ll have realized what funding sources we have available … hoping to start construction in December, with a completion date of June 2017.”
Local Coastal Plan and zoning text amendments
A unanimous 5-0 vote by Council late Monday signified the final bit of progress the wastewater treatment facility made this month, with approval of text amendments for the Local Coastal Plan and zoning text, as well as a change to the Malibu Municipal Code and Zoning Map.
These amendments were presented by the CCC during its May 13 meeting and include changes to wording in the proposed LCP that detail environmental protections, including strengthening language for protecting environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA) “to the maximum extent feasible,” rather than the City’s proposed wording: “as much as feasible.”
The CCC also lowered maximum fence height from seven feet to six feet.
Steve Bobzin, a Webster Elementary dad who has led the charge against the sewer’s location and went so far as to appeal the CCC’s decision, said Monday that he is ready to accept that the sewer is going forward at that location, but hopes to work with the City to make it “the safest for our schoolchildren and our residents.”
“I fully recognize that there is not a snowball’s chance in hell anything I could say at this moment would change you guys from approving the modifications requested by the Coastal Commission and the amendment going forward,” Bobzin told Council. “I also acknowledge that there’s probably no chance for an appeal to the Coastal Commission to be successful in changing the site of this project.”
Bobzin went on to list several requests for the property, including an evacuation plan for children and staff of Webster Elementary and Our Lady of Malibu School in the event of an emergency, storing hazardous chemicals far away from one another to avoid accidental mixing and making sure noise and traffic from the site are kept to a minimum.
Although Council could not formally comment on Bobzin’s requests, Mayor John Sibert did say he “would support many of these issues that Steve has raised.”