The city Parks and Recreation Department started the process of gathering the Malibu citizens into workshops and asking them what they would like to see on the 19-plus acre parcel that runs along Pacific Coast Highway in the Pt. Dume area near Heathercliff Road. The parcel, plus $5 million in cash is what the Malibu Bay Company will be giving the city if the proposed land development deal for the Civic Center and Trancas areas becomes a reality.

At the same time the city was asking the citizens what they wanted to see on the not yet acquired land–the ‘no growth’ opposition was out at the Colony Plaza Shopping Center last weekend. Collecting signatures to put an initiative onto the ballot that, if passed it would generally require ballot approval on all commercial projects over 25,000 square feet which would probably effectively scuttle the proposed park and community center on Pt. Dume.

Those at the Parks and Recreation meeting stated clearly what they wanted for that land and on the top of everyone’s list were the three ball fields which would probably mean two baseball fields and one soccer field or some variation on that theme. For the community center, which is estimated to be about 15,000 square feet, the consensus for some at the meetings was for a multi-purpose gym/auditorium/large studio with a series of smaller meeting rooms throughout the complex. Almost all thought there was a need for a permanent senior citizens center and a teen center, although with the creation of the new Boy’s and Girls Club at Malibu High School there was some discussion about this just being a duplicative.

Although there was generally consensus on most things the one area that split the group was whether or not to have a game room with video games. Some thought it was a great way to raise money for the center and others were adamantly opposed.

At one of the meetings there was one table that refused to participate at all. Their position was that they wanted the area to stay just the way it was–as open space with nothing on it.

Summary of the priority items were:

• Inside the 15,000 square foot community center

• Gym

• Multipurpose room with stage

• Small meeting rooms

• Kitchen, capable of catering

• Indoor gym

• Preschool space

• Community lounge

• Multimedia community room

• Showers & locker room

• Library

• Classrooms

• Outside on the 19 acres

• Ball fields

• Landscaping

• Jogging track

• Dog Park

• Tot Park

• Outside volleyball court

• Outside basketball court

• Snack bar

• Bandstand / bandshell

• Community garden

The new Malibu Theater has been selected as the first theater in the nation to introduce an exciting new technology.

Sue Spielberg, executive vice president of ZebraPass technology based in Washington, D.C., said, “This easy to use online ticketing system will allow movie fans to bypass the ticket counter and avoid frustrating box office lines. Our mission is to keep technology customer friendly.”

Spielberg, accompanied by mom, Leah Adler, showed their enthusiasm for the Malibu Theater Fast Pass Friday afternoon, by flashing and swiping their cards at the cozy and relaxed atmosphere theater as curious moviegoers waited in line.

“The idea is to eliminate lines and make going to the movies a complete convenience,” Spielberg said, flashing a confident smile.

Wallace Theaters is thrilled to launch the most exciting online ticketing solution anywhere in the United States that will allow customers the ability to secure seats to the most anticipated Hollywood blockbusters with a click of a mouse, according to David L. Lyons, vice president of Wallace Theater Corporation.

By logging on to malibutheater.com, the customer can use the easy-to-navigate website instructions that will guide them through the process of registering for their Fast Pass card that they can use over and over again, said Spielberg, describing the process. After a quick and easy one-time online enrollment the customer will pick up their card at the box office and that will be the last time the customer will ever have to go to the ticket counter.

The website will allow customers to select a movie for show times and purchase their ticket from any computer, said Spielberg. Once they arrive at the theater, all they have to do is flash the card to avoid the line; swipe the card over an electronic reader and they are ready to sit back and enjoy their movie experience.

The new ticketing option will be available to the residents of Malibu and surrounding areas.

A study designed to pinpoint sources of pollution in Malibu Lagoon shows some surprising conclusions. This second phase of a study, mandated by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board and performed by URS Greiner Woodward Clyde, monitored levels of indicator microorganisms, nutrients and other wastewater markers at 23 sites along the beach, the lagoon and creek.

The study, paid for out of the city’s general fund at about $80,000, was released in April and contains lab analysis of water samples of surface water in the surf zone, groundwater and sediments at locations in and near Malibu Lagoon and Creek and along the beachfront of Malibu Colony and Malibu State Beach.

City Engineer Rick Morgan said there were some surprises for the RWQCB, which has assumed septic systems to be the primary pollution source, and Malibu residents, who have long blamed treated effluent from the Tapia Wastewater Treatment Plant upstream.

Neither of these, however, appear to be the primary source.

“The most dramatic finding is that storm drains are regular sources of contamination with high fecal coliform counts,” Morgan said. Sediment samples collected at the outfall of three storm drains that empty into the lagoon were shown to contribute significant bacteriological contamination to the lagoon.

The good news is that storm drain contamination is treatable. The city’s new “stormceptor” disinfection system was installed in May at Storm Drain No. 3 (formerly known as “the mystery drain”), which collects runoff from Malibu Colony Plaza, Malibu Road and the golf course and enters the lagoon just north of the Colony.

“I’m seeking funding to do the other two storm drains,” Morgan said.

MBAS (surficant) levels detected in samples collected at the storm drains do not provide evidence that wastewater from household or commercial septic systems are probable sources, the report states. Sources for the nutrient- and microbial-impacted water could be from excessively fertilized fields, surface water run-off containing animal feces and rinsing off of areas where septic leachate has daylighted due to a poorly operating system.

The other significant element of the study is the connection between water levels in the lagoon and groundwater levels when the lagoon sand berm is breached, leading Morgan to conclude that ongoing water-level management may be key to controlling water quality.

Morgan says they learned a lot from Phase I (formerly called “the dye study” and completed in June, 1999), which used a phage, or marker, to try to detect a hydraulic connection between septic leach fields and groundwater in the Cross Creek shopping center.

“As long as there was 1-1/2 feet separating the leach field from the groundwater, the soils filtered out pathogens,” Morgan said. “In this study, we found higher contamination in the ground water adjacent to the creek near the shopping center and near the Colony during a breach of the berm when the flow draws. When the berm was open, the levels went up and down with the tide.

“The difference was only about seven feet. It wasn’t real dramatic,” Morgan said. “That shows we need to manage the lagoon water levels.”

When lagoon levels begin to rise, measured amounts of surface water could be released onto the beach–where exposure to the sun would kill pathogens–reducing pressure on septic and groundwater levels before a full breach could occur and contaminate the surf zone.

The RWQCB has not commented on the findings since the study was released in April, even though there was considerable pressure to complete the project quickly. Executive Officer Dennis Dickerson said Monday that his staff has not yet given the board any information regarding the study, and that report was probably with the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project.

“At our meeting on Aug. 31, we will be doing a comprehensive look at Malibu on a number of issues, and that will be one of them,” Dickerson said. “There are waste discharge permit requirements [for the City Hall site]. The city needs to obtain one.”

There is still some disagreement, however, over whether the city or Los Angeles County, which owns the property, is responsible for obtaining the permit.

Water officials had sued the city last year because they said Malibu hadn’t submitted its plan for Phase II promptly. The city said it was waiting for the results of a UCLA study on the entire watershed before designing its own plan.

The RWQCB is now asking for tests of the groundwater around City Hall, Morgan said. Phase I of the study reported pathogen transport quickly traveled 10 feet from contact, but nothing much was detected beyond that.

“What’s the chance of a pathogen getting from here [City Hall] all the way to the ocean?”

After Sharon Barovsky raised her right hand Monday night to be sworn in by Judge Lawrence Mira, the Malibu City Council was back to it’s full complement of five members and in quick succession Barovsky announced three of her new appointments. To the City Planning Commission she reappointed Andrew Stern, who previously had been a Walt Keller appointment and served on the commission from June 1998 to May 2000. She also appointed Laureen Sills a co-chair of PARCS and Eric Stauffer to the Telecommunications Commission.

The major item of the evening, a Request for a Limited Moratorium on “Grandfathering” and “Home Office” Code Enforcement cases produced a heated and often forceful debate between councilmembers Jeff Jennings and Ken Kearsley who clashed repeatedly with the soon-to-retire City Manager Harry Peacock who was opposed to the moratorium and wanted to send the matter back to the Code Enforcement Task Force without any council action. The issue of code enforcement, which was a major issue in the last council election, finally broke out into the open at the council over the nature and quality of Malibu’s code and code enforcement policies.

There was a proposal before the council, introduced by Councilmember Ken Kearsley, to declare a temporary moratorium on both the enforcement of rules governing “Home Offices” and another on the larger and much more complicated question of the “Grandfathering” issue to allow what he described as a “time-out” while both the council and the Code Enforcement Task Force grapple with the issues.

The staff, city manager, and city attorney strenuously resisting the idea of any moratorium, met with a wall of opposition from both Jennings and Kearsley who argued for a temporary cooling-off period. After an hour of discussion the council voted 4-1 ( Joan House dissenting) to have the city attorney come back with a legally defensible moratorium on home offices. They also assigned the Grandfathering question to the City Council Land Use and Planning subcommittee, consisting of House and Jennings, with instructions to meet with staff and return quickly with a specifically worded proposal for a grandfathering moratorium for the council to discuss.

Other actions of the council:

• Approved the budget for the fiscal years 2000-2001 and also 2001-2002. In 2000-20001 the proposed city expenditures will be $17,410,000, of which $12,557,7000 comes from general funds and the remainder ($4,852,370) from Special Revenue Funds. The largest expenditures are $4.3 million for public safety, $3 million for community environment and $3 million for capital projects. The end of the year should show a $400,000 surplus.

In 2001-2002 the expenditures are lower–$15,597,150, and at the end of the year they expect a small surplus.

• In other matters the council in a 5-0 vote decided they were still opposed to AB 885, the proposed Assembly bill that would create statewide standards for septic systems. Although the bill had been substantially amended, most on the council could see nothing to be gained by endorsing the newly amended bill. Several were fearful that the RWQCB might have enforcement powers and in the past they have been very unsympathetic to septic systems and particularly leach fields, which are in wide usage in Malibu.

• Approved the letting of a contract for the redesign of heavily congested Cross Creek Road in the vicinity of the shopping centers and environs to make it more pedestrian friendly. The options are open and the council indicated they wanted to see what the designers would come back with.

• They decided to step out and let the County handle it:

• The council named their new appointments to the Harry Barovsky Memorial Youth Commission. The one year appointments are Alexis Bolter 12th grade, Jeremy Mathew Johnson 12th, Caytlyn McCloskey 12th, Miles Jennings 12th, Adam Androlia 10th, Chanel Kass 9th, Sky Shachory 9th, Kurtis Major 9th, Melissa Cardidad 8th, Jenny M. Hardy 8th. The two year appointments are Mose Wintner 7th grade, Brighton Aubriegh McCloskey 8th, Zachary A Drapkin 9th, Caitlin Harris 10th and Evan Shoop 11th.

• In another 5-0 vote the council approved assigning the cities $700,000 in bond funds to the State to help pay for work on the Malibu Pier provided the state set up a maintenance fund for the ongoing maintenance of the Pier so that it will not fall into disrepair again.

• In a 4-1 vote, with only House feeling that maybe the city ought to take over the licensing, the city decided to wash their hands of the increasingly frustrating problem of the cities minimal involvement in the L.A. County business licenses program where the city was to hold hearings here in Malibu. According to several on the council and staff, whatever was intended has never worked and, in fact, has caught several local business, such as Dukes restaurant and the Oddessy School, in the no-mans land between the city and the county. The licensing statute seemed to make little sense to most on the council because it regulates certain things like bookstores, but not others, such as lap dancing.

• Awarded a $782,000 contract to an Oxnard contractor to pave the following Malibu Roads in the next year: Busch Drive (north of Merritt), Clover Heights Road, Coast View Drive, Colony View Circle, Deerhead Road, Dume Drive, Guernsey Drive, Harbor Vista Drive, Harvester Road, Heathercliff Road, Malibu Crest Road, Malibu Knolls Road, Merritt Drive, Morning View Drive, Seastar Drive and Surfside Way.