More than 300 people joined the celebration at Legacy Park, enjoying live music, family-friendly games and activities
provided by sponsors and volunteers.
By Meg Boberg / Special to The Malibu Times
The sun peeked through the clouds on Sunday after two weeks of heavy rain, allowing hundreds of Malibu residents gathered at the scenic Legacy Park to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Malibu becoming a city.
After a decades-long battle, Malibu took the reins of local control and became an incorporated city on March 28, 1991. Eighty-four percent of Malibu citizens cast their votes in favor of cityhood 20 years ago.
At the celebrations Sunday, Mayor John Sibert, whose wife Blanca Sibert volunteered in coordinating the event as a member of the citizens group, wore a T-shirt he has had since 1988 bearing the message “Save Our Coast,” a grassroots group that sought to fight plans by Los Angeles County to install a sewer system in Malibu. Residents feared that a sewer system here would lead to overdevelopment, and sought cityhood to gain local control.
“This was the beginning of the city,” Sibert said, pointing to his T-shirt. “The county supervisors wanted to build a sewage treatment plant on Corral Canyon and build condos and high rises all along the beach. This was the first big event, we took 10 or 11 buses and 700 people to the office to protest.”
Other community leaders attending Sunday’s event were four former mayors, including Sharon Barovsky and Joan House as co-chairs of the anniversary festivities. Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal and Public Safety Commissioner Carol Randall also joined the celebration.
Changes in Malibu Sibert said he has seen in the past 20 years include more environmental projects such as opening of Trancas Park, Legacy Park, Las Flores Park and Malibu Bluffs Park.
However, Sibert said the biggest change he’s seen is the demographics.
“We didn’t have many kids in the city, and on my street alone by 1997-1998, there were at least 30 kids, but in 1985 there was only one,” he said. “It’s more of a family community, which is great.”
A concern he has, though, is the lack of participation from the entire Malibu community.
“We’re more of a family community now, which is great. We’ve got parks now, and we didn’t have those, and that was a battle,” he said. “The thing that worries me the most is we are becoming, in many areas, a city of second homes. Many of the people don’t live here, they have a home here, but their other home is in Beverly Hills or a condo in New York … you hate to see the beach being taken over by second family homes.
“On the plus side, with these kinds of parks and things like the Farmers Market, we have more people in Malibu meeting each other, and we needed to become more of a community,” Sibert said. “At 25 miles long and with 13,000 people, the only place they used to meet was Ralphs Market, the people from the east side and the people from the west side. But now that we have things like these parks and the community center, that means we’ll be doing more of the things you’d like to see in a community, moving forward.”
Randall, who has lived in Malibu since 1964, has seen Malibu evolve from an unincorporated area under Los Angeles County jurisdiction to an independent city.
“It’s a more sophisticated city than it was. The people who lived here were very physical, they were divers, surfers or fishermen,” Randall said. “It’s still a lovely place to be. I thank all the community fathers who got this community thriving.”
Also involved in the celebration was 15-year-old Malibu Youth Commission member David Robinson-Hicks.
“I love Malibu. It’s really a unique community that always draws me back, I can’t think of settling anywhere else in L.A.,” Robinson-Hicks said. “The Legacy Park opening was a great achievement and it’s a wonderful space and we can make great uses of it like this.”
Helping organize the event was Malibu resident Meril May, who has been a Malibu resident for 15 years. May helped organize the various groups participating in the event, such as entertainment provided by local individuals, including the Malibu High School Jazz Ensemble.
“There have been a lot of great additions here, like this park…it’s not only a recreational facility but also a huge environmental aspect; it’s Malibu’s Central Park,” May said.
Sibert on Sunday also talked about the fight against the county 20 years ago over the sewer system, and one of the main issues Malibu has faced since then and now-water quality.
“I think we’re finally getting a hold of issues that we dealt with back in the ‘80s,” he said, referring to Legacy Park and its storm water treatment facility. “During that last rain of six or more inches here, every drop of that water was collected and treated at the storm water treatment center here and sterilized to remove all bacteria from it and then stored to get reused, so that’s a big deal.”
Despite Sibert’s optimism, since the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board approved a septic ban in central Malibu, the city will soon have to install a centralized wastewater treatment facility that will treat sewage from businesses and homes in central Malibu, including the Civic Center area. It is something some fear will lead to the overdevelopment they fought against two decades ago.
The city originally planned to install a wastewater treatment facility on the Legacy Park land when it purchased it from Malibu Bay Co. in 2006 for $25 million, but later found that there was not enough space for one. City leaders are currently in negotiations with the water board regarding how the city will go about building a central wastewater treatment facility here and who will pay for it.
Legacy Park was officially opened on Oct. 2, but the storm water treatment facility has been in operation since 2007.