Tapping into the wellspring of support for wetlands restoration among City Council members, the developer of a large self-storage facility proposed for Cross Creek Road offered the city an easement over its land Monday to facilitate that restoration, in return for a density bonus for the self-storage project.

The self-storage facility, proposed for just north of Civic Center Way, was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission in May, but at a size smaller than that requested by the developer, Mariposa Land Company. The commission denied the larger project sought by Mariposa because it was dissatisfied with gifts the company offered the city in return for the requested density bonus. Under the zoning code, Mariposa is required to offer a public benefit to the city to win approval of the larger project, which at 56,366 square feet, would occupy a floor-area ratio of 20 percent.

In May, the company offered the Planning Commission a grant of $100,000 to help with the city’s acquisition of ball fields.

But in a change of strategy Monday, Mariposa’s Grant Adamson offered the City Council a new public benefit: an easement over the company’s adjacent property for a pipe that would carry water from Malibu Creek to a proposed man-made creek on Civic Center Way that would be built as part of a wetlands restoration project. There, the water would be cleaned and diverted back through a storm drain into Malibu Creek and Lagoon. In the event the easement is not needed, Adamson said, Mariposa would donate the $100,000, but this time for wetlands restoration, ball fields or the beautification of the median on PCH near the Civic Center.

Most members of the City Council warmly received the proposal, but questioned whether the width of the easement offered — five feet — would be large enough to hold the size of pipe needed for the cleansing action.

“I don’t think five feet is going to cut it,” said Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Van Horn. But she said she was interested in the easement, adding, “I think we may be on the right track here.”

Councilman Tom Hasse said he, too, was pleased with new benefit Mariposa offered, but he needed more information on the size of the easement required.

“I’m happy this is the public benefit you’re offering to make the wetlands dream come true,” said Hasse.

The council members discussed a third alternative public benefit — a donation by Mariposa to the state parks department of approximately two acres along the banks of Malibu Creek to aid in the parks department’s restoration of Malibu Creek.

The council unanimously agreed to ask staff to get an approximate value of the two acres and to compare it with the value of the easement and the $100,000 gift of cash. The council plans to rule on the project at its first meeting in September.

Bluffs Park became the flashpoint of controversy at last week’s city Parks & Recreation Commission, as commissioners decided to respond to a letter by state Sen. Tom Hayden that lambasted the city for not choosing an alternative site for its ballfields.

Commissioners also voted to ask the City Council for a waiver for local 12-step programs on a recent facility use-fee increase at the park’s Michael Landon Center, apparently overriding the department’s need to generate revenue to pay 50 percent of its operating costs.

In other action, the commission decided to go through with a public hearing on the Parks Master Plan Public Workshop set for Aug. 5 [see below] even though many people would be on vacation.

Hayden’s letter to Gov. Gray Davis, which was published in The Malibu Times, said that for nearly two years, he had been trying to spur the city to choose alternative sites for baseball fields before the state reclaims Bluffs Park in 2002.

State park officials recently toured the city and “pointed out a dozen locations where a single or multiple ball fields might be located,” Hayden wrote two weeks ago. “The city ostensibly has made no such search.

“It is time for Malibu to take the initiative and select new sites for their recreation programs. … Bluffs Park must remain in the hands of State Parks and returned to a more natural state for the use of all Californians and our national and international visitors…,” Hayden concluded.

While commissioners regarded Hayden’s letter as a declaration of war, local activists in the audience urged a more conciliatory approach.

The state should be made aware that the city pays for law enforcement on roads and beaches it does not own and for which it does not get any parking revenue, said commission Chair Patricia Greenwood. At the same time, the city has spent about $500,000 in public and private funds to improve the park for regional use.

“These are public services at the expense of our dire recreational needs,” said Commissioner Sam Hall Kaplan.

Noting the number of people using Bluffs Park for whale watching and exercise, commissioner Ted Vaill said, “We have not kept anyone out.”

Former planning commissioner Barbara Cameron said access to the potential ballfield sites near Malibu High School and Trancas Town is limited and would get worse. State officials also didn’t take into consideration whether property owners would be willing to give up their flatlands, Cameron said.

Both Cameron and Kristin Reynolds, president of the advocacy group People Achieving Recreation and Community Services (PARCS), which for months has pleaded with city officials for more athletic fields, urged a continuing dialogue with the state.

Reynolds noted the state has compelling reasons for taking over the park and people should learn what they are. “We have to learn how we can fit in,” she said. “We have to go into this as a cooperative effort.”

Reynolds urged people to express their views at the Aug. 5 workshop so the state could be presented with a different scenario.

As burgeoning enrollment at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School requires more space, the Malibu Community Center is relinquishing most of its remaining rooms.

“Our lease agreement is over. The Community Center will still have an office on site near the school office and will continue to produce community events such as the Halloween Haunt, the Easter Hoppening and the annual Day in the Park,” said Beverly Hammond, president of the Point Dume Community Services District Board of Directors, which has operated the site for the past 16 years.

“As the result of the loss of space, most of the groups that formerly used the center for meetings have been forced to find other locations,” Hammond said.

“I understand one of the groups went to the city and asked to use its conference room for a board of directors meeting but were told no,” said Nidra Winger, executive director of the Community Center. “For years, all the study groups met here. Even the city has used this site in the past.

“Our next step is to propose a joint powers agreement with the city to operate a community center on Point Dume, assuming that land can become available. The Malibu Bay Co. has proposed donating six flat acres for baseball and soccer fields and room for a 12,000-square-foot building.”

The city has been in negotiations with the Malibu Bay Co. about the offer. “We want to work cooperatively on something that will benefit the city, as well as our district,” Winger said. “We have the experience in successfully running a community center and would like to work with the city in furthering the goal of expanding community services for Malibu.”

Children’s Creative Workshop, originally a subtenant of the Community Center, has operated for the past three years as a tenant of the Santa Monica-Malibu School District. The preschool workshop operated by Shari Latta will continue at the site but will use only two rooms.

The Seniors Club, whose 200 members for many years used the facility’s auditorium for its monthly luncheons, has been meeting at the Point Dume Club for almost a year, Hammond said. “We no longer had space for them.”

The Community Center lost the use of the majority of the rooms three years ago when the school district opened the Cabrillo Marine Science Satellite to alleviate crowding at Malibu elementary schools and to accommodate state-mandated class-size reductions. The large exercise room, with its hardwood floor and mirrors used for yoga, aerobics and dance classes, is now the school library. “It was one of the most heavily used rooms,” Hammond said. “We were still able to accommodate the book discussion group and some of the smaller groups until the beginning of this summer.”

Three separate programs offered through the Community Center this summer — Kelly Matthews’ summer reading program, a workshop for children and Kurt Lampson’s children’s karate program — will continue through August.

The Point Dume Community Services District, a special services district established originally by LAFCO to operate a community center in Malibu, has offered educational and recreational activities and programs at the site for the past 16 years.

“The things we’ve found that people enjoy most are classroom spaces for meetings, an exercise room for yoga and a large auditorium space for art exhibits and the seniors club,” Hammond said.

“We’ve had a good relationship with the school district since 1982,” Winger said. “At first you want to ask people to save the Community Center, but it’s not like it’s going to be torn down. It’s a school, and it’s an enrichment to our community.

“We’ve had this site for 16 years, but it never was ours,” Winger said. “They’ve let us be here. It’s just that they’re exploding at the seams. The demographics have changed, and they need their building back.”

Winger said she has been telling the center’s nonprofit user groups that meet in the evenings they’re welcome to go the school district and ask for meeting space. “After August, I can no longer facilitate them,” she said. “There is a big need for meeting rooms, and our seniors really need someplace to go. At Point Dume Club, it’s not for their exclusive use, it’s the rec room for the whole park.”

The case of People vs. Remy O’Neill and the Road Worriers for violation of the Malibu campaign ordinance came to a sudden halt last week when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Neidorf, sitting in Santa Monica, threw the case out of court, ruling the Statute of Limitations had run.

Either the judge was wrong on the law and made a bad decision or the contract city prosecutors, the law firm of Dapeer, Rosenblitt and Litvak, who handle criminal cases on behalf of the city, had erred in calculating the Statute of Limitations, waiting too long before filing the criminal case against O’Neill and the Road Worriers.

The attorney handling the case, William Litvak, did not respond to The Malibu Times’ several telephone requests for information or an explanation, and neither he nor his firm has issued a press release reporting the decision, which is in itself unusual in a case of high public interest.

The prosecutors must decide within 30 days of the court’s ruling, rendered July 19, whether or not they intend to appeal that ruling. Up to now, this case and the FPPC cases, both of which relate to alleged campaign violations during the 1998 City Council campaign, have been hard fought by all the parties involved, with every court ruling in the case appealed to a higher court. Observers are looking to this case to see if the city prosecution team has lost its thirst for battle since the departure of former City Attorney Christi Hogin.

The decision whether to appeal is supposedly one made by the prosecutor, irrespective of political considerations and without consultation with the City Council, either individually or collectively.

If they don’t appeal, the matter ends and the case is never heard on its merits.

Defense counsel for O’Neill and the Road Worriers, Bradley Hertz, was quoted in the press last week as saying, “We are pleased that the city’s misguided and politically motivated prosecution of O’Neill and the Road Worriers has been dismissed by the court.” To date, the prosecutors have not responded to that charge, nor issued any statement of their own, nor taken the opportunity to communicate their side with the press.

The judge decided the case based on a demurrer, a procedure in which a judge is legally required to assume all of the plaintiff’s allegations — in this case, the city’s allegations — are true. A defense based on the Statute of Limitations argues that even if everything in the complaint is true, the complaint was filed too late. Apparently, in this case the judge agreed with the defense.

It is unusual for a judge to sustain a demurrer without first giving the losing side an opportunity to correct the complaint. Although the opportunity does not always mean the complaint can be corrected, it is usual to give a party one or more opportunities to make the corrections if the party so requests.

Whether the city prosecutors have lost that fire in their belly will probably be answered when the 30 days runs out. If they file a notice of appeal, they mean to stay in the battle. If they don’t, it would appear they’ve given up.