We can all agree that the city would benefit from a ‘vision’ of the Civic Center. And insofar as the Civic Center Guidelines enhance the aesthetics of the area by proposing linear waterways, pedestrian trails and complementary architectural styles, they are valuable. But woven within these recommendations are two proposals that would result in major commercial zoning code changes and the creation of new roads, which make it easier to build bigger buildings and create more traffic.

These wouldn’t be a concern were it not for the fact that Malibu is indeed facing a gigantic amount of legally allowable new commercial space in the Civic Center and anything we do to expand legal levels of build-out will only intensify the traffic and pollution problems that invariably occur as the result of high-density development. For this reason your editorial linking opposition to the Guidelines with a ‘no-growth’ stance is somewhat inaccurate.

While reasonable people favor allowing landowners to build up to the 600,000+ square feet that they are entitled by the zoning code, your average resident would not like to see us change the code to make it easier for them to achieve over 400,000 more square feet as specified under the General Plan. It’s an unfortunate historical mistake that that the General Plan allows 67% more square footage than the zoning code, and a consequence of the large amount of land that LA County originally zoned as commercial. But General Plan levels are not a legal entitlement unless discretionary variances are given. If our goal is to limit development legally, the best way to do this is to strictly apply the current restrictions of the current code.

This is where the Guidelines as public policy need a few revisions. They propose increasing commercial building heights from 28 to 30 feet and eliminating the height restriction all together for designs with a ‘focal point.’ This is a misty standard, which is totally unnecessary and will inevitably result in bigger, taller buildings, with more view blockage and urban scaling.

The other loophole, which is an even more drastic departure from current law, is a modification to the open space requirement. Presently 65 percent of commercial lot areas are required to be open space and landscaping. As written, the Guidelines reduce this requirement to 40 percent by allowing open space and landscaping to be cumulative and not exclusive of each other. This may sound inconsequential but it represents almost a 40 percent reduction in non-buildable area, which can be used to meet parking requirements and expand building sizes dramatically.

The third proposal which would increase traffic is the addition of two roads through several parcels behind the town hall which were originally subdivided as agricultural land, are currently almost landlocked and have little commercial viability. By increasing thru-traffic, the new roads guarantee that higher intensity commercial uses will be developed on these sites because they will be gifted new commercial frontage.

The City Council should be commended for recognizing that major infrastructure changes in the Civic Center area should not be made in a cavalier fashion and for postponing adoption of the Guidelines until they are evaluated further. Since I’m concerned that the level of traffic we currently experience on beach Sundays will become the daily norm in Malibu because of the volume of new development, I hope they continue to demonstrate a cautious approach to the Civic Center issue.

Anne Hoffman

On July 16, there is a public hearing before the Planning Commission on issues relating to the Malibu Stage Company (MSC). The agenda is divided into two parts:

1. The request of the MSC to expand its CUP and then be allowed more intensive usage of the site.

2. Should the MSC and Pt. Dume Community Service District (PDCSD) be allowed to enter into a joint venture.

To item #1, I say no. Not without an extensive EIR. An extensive EIR was done in the mid-1980s and revealed that site has a very limited capacity to handle ground water/septic and hence both the Coastal Commission and L.A. County would approve only one home per two acres on the site. Currently, the site has a nursery with a staff and its employees, and I believe there is a guest house on the site. The theater building has the capacity to hold 100 people. Any expanded use must have a valid and detailed EIR. Not a negative declaration and CEQA exemption.

Item 2–No, absolutely and unequivocally no, to PDCSD usage of this site.

(a) It is against current zoning and hence would be illegal.

(b) Our neighborhood is NOT within their boundaries and the board members not accountable to us. No voting rights to select board members is given us.

(c) Any difficulties that the PDCSD is facing are the responsibility of residents of Pt. Dume and their elected board members to resolve, not our neighborhood.

(d) Would most certainly require an in-depth EIR and not just a CEQA exemption.

The fact that the MSC needs city money and is seeking a joint venture with the PDCSD might well be a symptom of a failing venture. I would like the MSC to succeed. They are creative and talented people who do not need to turn to the city or the PDCSD to succeed. I would strongly suggest that they establish a positive and mutually beneficial relationship with their immediate neighbors–one of mutual respect. We are willing and quite able to work with the MSC.

I have asked myself the following:

1. Will the release of city funds to the MSC, the city intending to not require an EIR, and the probable knowledge by the City Council of MSC’s need and desire to enter into a joint venture with the PDCSD allow for a fair and impartial public hearing on July 16, and perhaps later before the City Council?

2. Are my Pt. Dume neighbors fully aware of what their service district is doing, and that they may have the right to tax you? Do you hold your board members accountable?

Russell Drago

In your article, Patricia Chursky (I believe it is Chursky) failed to mention that the business she runs out of her home is that of RPC Development, who is partially responsible for the septic problems in Malibu. And that her home is a condominium which has a high septic-to-land ratio. It sounds as though she may be a NIMBA (not in my back yard) while benefiting financially from the proliferation of septic tanks in Malibu.

Andrew Blair

Most Malibu kids have never taken direction from their parents. If you could travel back in time and observe the initial Malibu Chumash family in their original Malibu shelter of white tree bark adorned with red leaves, you would see typical parents yelling at their primitive teen-agers for sitting around and brooding all day instead of hunting for grubs and berries like mom and dad. You would then see the primal teen-agers trudge to a nearby cliff and sketch on the rocks or throw sticks at the birds.

When modern Malibu Man established the town, the Chumash Indians were still running it. Let’s see, there were no taxes, no $15 million land bond debate, plenty of fish, plenty of deer, no tourist beach trash, no Chumash Code Enforcement Officer, plenty of recreational area for the kids to play, women did most of the work, the Medicine Man was free, the Chumash Council spent their assemblies smoking “something” in a Peace Pipe and the Chumash men hunted and fished all the time!

What comical Malibu City Council member is dim-witted enough to think they could improve on a system like that!

And that is all I have to say.

Tom Fakehany

Here comes the barge

Each year on the Fourth of July we invite a bunch of friends to the house, confident in the belief that someone, somewhere here in Malibu, is going to cough up a whole bunch of dough to pay for a tug, towing a barge filled with fireworks, to entertain our guests.

For more than a quarter of a century that we’ve lived here, we have rested serene in the belief that someone, typically someone in show biz, had a very good year and is going to be this year’s great public benefactor.

However, as we begin to scan the horizon for those tugs pulling barges, by 3 p.m. on the afternoon of the 4th I always start to get nervous.

Maybe Danny DeVito is away on location. Maybe this is the year the studios decided to cut back on spending. Maybe Malibu is no longer the venue of choice for the 4th and they’re all off in the Hamptons, Tahiti, or wherever is this year’s hot spot.

But then we see that smudge on the horizon, and as it gets closer and turns into a tug we know we’re going to be entertained for another year.

Well, we decided to do some investigative journalism this year, and we have it from some very reliable and highly placed but unnamed sources that there are going to be at least five barges in the Malibu area off Malibu Colony, Zumirez, Broad Beach, Encinal off PCH, and a fifth unnamed location.

For a moment I was going to complain that no one on La Costa Beach or Carbon Beach had seen fit to get a barge closer to my home, but I decided against it for fear that next year they’ll ask me to kick in.

So, to our unnamed benefactors, we all say a collective “Thank you,” and our best wishes that your pics do big box office or your TV show gets picked up, or whatever. May the show biz gods smile on you for your generosity.

A river runs through it

Karen and I just came back from a weekend in Reno and there is something to be learned and perhaps copied from our experience there.

No, I’m not suggesting that Malibu needs a small tasteful casino, although I will admit I’ve often wondered how it is that the Chumash seemed to have been left out of the great Casino Giveaway and other tribes have become the designees of government largess.

What I am suggesting is that Reno has a lovely river running through the center of town, and they’ve developed little pocket parks and walks alongside it.

People sit along the river and picnic. They walk their dogs by it. And the geese and ducks appear to coexist very comfortably with man.

We have our own body of water–Malibu Creek–that flows most of the year.

I’ve never understood why we don’t try to take advantage of this lovely site and use it. It doesn’t have to be anything big and elaborate, just something a little bit pleasant and usable, perhaps a walking path, perhaps some shaded picnic benches. We spend a lot of time plotting to get additional recreational land but very little energy in trying to use what we already have in the inventory.

Malibu Chamber of Commerce Arts Festival

At the end of this month, on July 28 and 29, the city is holding the annual Chamber of Commerce Arts Festival in the city hall parking lot.

Over the years the festival has become both a favorite of the public, festival artists and vendors. In fact, the Malibu festival is considered among the top 10 of arts festivals.

The chamber intentionally limits the size of the event and has a waiting list, often turning away scores of artists. An artist can’t just sign up for the festival. There is a screening process and a jury.

The Art Festival is the major Chamber of Commerce fundraiser of the year, and it needs your support, so mark that weekend on your calendar.

Almost all of the businesses in Malibu lend year-round support to many Malibu charities and they use the Art Festival as an opportunity to refill the chamber’s coffers. Go there and buy something. It’s an easy way to give community support and there are always some very interesting things to buy.

Does Malibu have a Heart and Soul? I believe, as do many of the people with whom I have talked, that it does, and a very strong one though unexpressed, in story, symbol and style throughout the public spaces of the city.

The purpose of story, symbol and style encapsulated in public places is to express in tangible form the struggle of this city’s people.

Of course as you know, the city has no publicly owned land. The struggle from the Chumash Indians, who called this land sacred to the present citizens, is how to live in harmony with this beautiful, unique yet fragile land where the mountains reach down to touch the ocean.

To struggle with that is to try to answer the question, what does sustainable development mean in this time of increased urbanization? The fragility of this land demands some answers from all of us who love it.

One question is how long can we continue to pump more wastewater into the land, than the land can hold? Another is how do we assure that every public and private septic system is like Caesar’s wife, above reproach? And how much of our own energy can we supply, in the form of solar, or a small regional energy plant? Another occurs to me in the form of how much extra traffic do we wish to encourage?

If that begins to hold some of the struggle, then what is our story? What are our symbols? What is our style? How do we convey these things to everyone who visits here, as well as reminding ourselves who we are and what we are about.

This message has to be present in the Civic Center, in any new Community Center, in every park and ballpark we are able to build.

For those of you who, like myself, hoped there would never be anything built in the Civic Center, forget it. The time of just say no is past. We’ve run out of all the valid “no” excuses. There will be development there. To think otherwise is to live in an illusion.

But to question whether what is being built is sustainable development in terms of the whole area and whether it holds the Malibu story, symbols and style is appropriate. The guidelines that the City Council are considering cover the nuts and bolts of construction. In other words, the how of building specifications. This doesn’t yet deal with making the Heart and Soul of Malibu visible in a tangible design.

I believe the time is right for the council to set up three major meetings as it did for the development agreement, to obtain from citizens their insights into not only the guidelines, but into the crucial part; that is, the story, symbols and style of the Malibu struggle. When all the insights are in we may need the help of a design producer to bring these insights together into our city’s plan for undeveloped commercial land.

The advantage of that kind of comprehensive planning is that it gives the City Council and citizens some control over what goes where in relation to the city’s design plan for the few undeveloped properties. It also puts us in a better position to get matching public funds.

What will it take besides a plan? We don’t own any land. We are, as a city, going to have the opportunity to vote for a bond issue in November to have money with which to buy land. We don’t have a design behind which our citizens can rally.

The time has come for all the disparate segments of our city to come together and work together once again under the banner of proclaiming the Heart and Soul of Malibu and passing the bond issue.

And what do I hope will happen in the future? While living in Southeast Asia, I heard various groups of monks chanting the great OM, which I was told was the voice of the earth. My hope is that someday, people will hear the sound of the Malibu earth and the music of humans joined together in a whole New Harmony of sustainable development for our time.

Georgianna McBurney

We would like to thank Sara Wan and members of the Coastal Commission for their efforts in further enhancing the natural beauty of Point Dume Preserve. The turnabout and shuttle bus in front of a magnificent view creates a dimension of exquisite taste. The surfers especially would like to extend their appreciation for offering them parking availability and special consideration for “handicapped” surfers of which they take advantage.

Eating and drinking is now so common on the Point that we expect a catering truck to appear and park in one of the spaces on a semi-permanent basis. We’re sure the Coastal Commission will give their approval. When can we expect the portable toilets to appear?

Rumor has it that this “beautification project” is the result of a parking ticket received by a member of the Commission when she visited the Point before parking was permitted.

Ron and Polly Stackler