Permitting a little more development in Malibu might eliminate some of those frustrating days of racing around in other communities that offer more goods and services — attempting to cross off long lists of items not found in our area. If it weren’t for developers such as the Malibu Bay Company, we’d have even less to choose from.
Bob Helper
Late season rains June 1 forced the release of treated recycled water from the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility into Malibu Creek, according to water district officials.
The closure of the Malibu Lagoon sand berm May 8 marked the start of a six-month, dry season prohibition on discharge into the creek under the Regional Water Quality Control Board permit for Tapia. The permit restriction, which remains in effect until Oct. 31, allows exceptions for “uncontrollable events,” including rain storms and plant upsets, according to Arlene Post, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District spokeswoman.
The district was fined by the water board for off-season discharges last year. The fine was lowered on appeal.
Officials from the RWQCB had not responded to inquiries for this story as of press time.
“Extraordinary measures” were put in place by the water district to avoid the need to discharge, despite ongoing cool and overcast weather this spring and throughout the Memorial Day weekend — when demand for recycled water for irrigation drops.
“Our crews worked tirelessly throughout the Memorial Day weekend to dispose of the surplus recycled water through surface waste spray,” said Jim Colbaugh, LVMWD general manager, in a prepared statement. “Tuesday morning, we were delighted with our success, but overnight rains quickly turned that around.”
On the morning of June 2, with rain falling and all land-disposal options eliminated, release to the creek was the only option left.
“The decision was not made lightly — but was unavoidable due to natural events, as is allowed under the conditions of the permit,” Colbaugh said.
According to records kept by county lifeguards at Surfrider Beach, the berm closed naturally on May 7 at 8 a.m. and at 4 p.m. reopened on its own. On May 12 at 8 a.m. it closed and then reopened May 19 before 8 a.m. or overnight, flowing until May 30. Since June 3 at 1 p.m., the creek has continued to flow. “But the sand is building up to close itself off again, probably within a week,” said John Larson, ocean lifeguard specialist.
The berm generally opens when water levels in the creek and lagoon are elevated and sometimes opens and closes during high tides.
Surfers, who suffer eye, ear, skin and respiratory infections from polluted water that flows onto Surfrider Beach, have fought to prevent all discharges into the creek. They have been active in trying to design a water-level management plan for the lagoon. Surfers have been known to form a “shovel brigade” when a berm breach is imminent, opening the berm several hundred yards to the west to protect the surf break. Water quality at Surfrider Beach routinely is rated “F” by environmental protection organization Heal the Bay.
Malibu environmentalists and city officials have long blamed Tapia for high levels of nitrogen and bacterial and viral counts in Malibu Creek and Lagoon, but a recent study by UCLA researchers failed to pinpoint exact sources of the pollution.
“Vineyards in Malibu? Nonsense!” said one longtime resident.
Wrong. In fact, according to restaurateur Michael McCarty, proprietor of The Malibu Vineyard, “There’s getting to be a regular forest of them here.”
If the dozen or so vineyards presently covering some 200 acres of Malibu hillsides don’t exactly constitute a “forest,” nevertheless it’s a fast-growing, local industry. In fact, if efforts to upgrade the product continue successfully, boosters claim Malibu could become as synonymous with wine production as with beaches and celebrities. Maybe even as famous as France’s Burgundy region with “lots of little vineyards,” says one of the fledgling industry’s biggest promoters, architectural developer Michael “Mal” Layman, whose two-acre Malibu Valley Vineyards is presently being expanded to 30 acres.
McCarty, Malibu’s highest-profile (but far from largest) wine producer, first planted vines in 1985, on 2-1/2, steeply sloping, terraced acres surrounding his Rambla Pacifico home. They were mostly red wine grapes, including pinot noir and a “pure” cabernet (clones such as the cabernet franc and merlot, used extensively in blends, were added in 1988). 1992 saw the arrival of a low-production, fruity, golden chardonnay praised by wine authority Robert Balzer as “Malibu’s Montrachet” (Burgundy’s famous white wine). All bear labels designed by McCarty’s award-winning artist wife, Kim, and most are sold in his restaurants in New York and Santa Monica, in West L.A.’s 20/20 wine store and in Malibu’s ‘Bu Heaven.
Then disaster struck: The 1993 fire took his vineyard along with the couple’s home. “We picked our last harvest two months before the fire,” McCarty says. “I’m told that the temperature at the vine level was 2500 to 3000 degrees.” The vineyard, miraculously, came back, but for three years there were leaves but no grapes. “Grapevines are like people,” he adds. “They react badly to stress.” In 1997 McCarty again harvested grapes, cleared and terraced new land, and added more varieties, including the Italian San Giovese grape. After crushing, fermentation, aging for two years in the barrel, and a year in the bottle, the year 2000 will see the first of McCarty’s post-fire vintages, numbering about 200 cases (half of it blends). As with many local winegrowers, this processing is done elsewhere; in McCarty’s case, by Bruno d’Alfonso, wine maker of Santa Ynez’ Sanford Vineyards.
Louis Hill, reputedly Malibu’s first winegrower, who planted his one-acre vineyard in 1978, was also “wiped out” in 1993. Today, at 83, the man many refer to as Malibu’s “little, old wine maker” and his wife, Lyllis, have replaced the vineyard with a garden. Unlike McCarty, though, Hill never sold his wine, giving it (especially a luscious cream sherry) to friends and keeping several cases for himself. Incidentally, 200 gallons is the federal guideline for winegrowers; below that, it’s considered to be for personal use; more, and the label has to be approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and federal excise tax paid.
Much of the credit for the recent growth in local winegrowing is due to the arrival four years ago of Todd Schaefer and Tammy Sentell (a former Miss Arkansas), whose PCH (Pacific Coast Hills) Vineyards both builds and maintains vineyards. They also grow some 7000 vines of their own near Saddle Rock Ranch, another 6000 (largely devoted to Burgundy-style grapes like pinot noir and pommard, plus chardonnay) above the Malibu Riding & Tennis Club, and 40 acres in Paso Robles.
Says Schaefer, a professional beach volleyball player before he studied viticulture at U.C. Davis, “Wine growing has been a hobby for a long time in Malibu, but if everyone stays at hobby level, you’ll never know how good it can be. Now it’s being taken very seriously. We’re experimenting with a number of varieties to see which are best for Malibu and its microclimates, which can range from the coastal fogs to extreme cold and heat.” Before recommending a potential vineyard, Schaefer and Sentell first survey the hillside in question. “If it looks feasible, we’ll do a soil and water analysis to decide the best variety,” he says. Malibu’s soil is generally fine for vineyards, Schaefer says, fertile and with the good drainage and nitrogen grapes love. There has been no trace, so far, of the vine killer known as Pierce’s Disease.
But why, one wonders, the sudden popularity of vineyards locally? “I think it’s for a couple reasons,” says Layman. “For one thing, the consciousness of wine consumers about the qualities of wine, including its health benefits, has grown a great deal lately. And with Todd leading the way, you can also see what can be done with hillside properties.” Grapevines also add an amenity to a home he says, and, unlike avocado and citrus orchards in the past, they also provide the required fire break around structures, as well as control erosion. “The fire department loves vines because they’re irrigated,” he says.
To keep those vines healthy, Schaefer-designed vineyards have automated drip watering systems, and are not sprayed with chemical pesticides. The couple also suggest piping in music to keep the vines happy. “They love classical music, especially Bach,” Tammy says, admitting about 85 percent of the ambiance achieved is for the workers. And, although building a vineyard isn’t cheap, it’s not as expensive as, say, running an NFL team. “We charge an average $20 per vine,” says Todd. “That’s for everything except clearing the land.” The couple’s company also maintains the vineyards for many owners. “Our phone rings all the time,” Todd says. “We’re in the Malibu vineyards seven days a week from dawn till dusk.”
But, like many owners, it’s also the romance of winegrowing that captures them. Looking at Layman’s hillside, once covered with dry underbrush but today filled with budding grapes, Tammy says, “It’s a dream, isn’t it? But it’s a dream you can drink.”
Attend our Council Meetings,
If you wish to learn a lot —
About our fearless leaders,
And what’s cooking in the pot.
Particularly, if you live on slopes,
Or plan to paint your house,
Or maybe to install a fence,
Or even trap a mouse.
You can observe, a new Bell Curve,
By how they think things out.
Agendas that affect you.
Believe me, there’s no doubt.
The bottom line, you may find,
Is to justify the fact —
They love the Power of Control,
And how we breath and act.
There may never be a reason,
Nor a season, for their plans —
But even so, the ego’s show,
As they ignore the facts at hand.
You have to see in person,
What Cityhood has wrought —
The quality of thinking,
And what our votes have bought.
P. F. Fogbottom
I hardly believe that the Malibu city attorney’s investigation into the 1996 City Council election campaign irregularities was a “Kenneth Starr-style investigation.” Hogin was amazingly discreet, no leaks from these lips, and most notably, O’Neill’s sex life was not held up to scrutiny and I never saw a photo of her in a beret.
I cannot believe that the Malibu Courts will find that Ms. O’Neill committed a serious offense against public law, nor will the consequences amount to much. Acknowledging that O’Neill must be under a lot of pressure, stress, and fear, I feel the real crime is the alleged $40,000 O’Neill owes her lawyers for dealing with these petty offenses.
Natasha O’Brian
It’s hard to be nostalgic when you can’t remember anything but nostalgia.
I received an e-note from an ex-Malibuite that follows the local Malibu adventures via the Internet edition of The Malibu Times. Or as she stated, “the greatest little tabloid west of Lost Hills.”
She is a mother of four boys, CEO of a successful business and general manager of a Northern California household. Writing a relevant sequence of nostalgic memories about her early days growing up in our community (one of which was me). She reminisced that, as there were no bus lines in Malibu, and gasoline was sold on odd and even days, so she and her siblings would find ways of convincing me that her posse needed an automobile ride to a local store. Of course it was always to retrieve an important item for a school project, only to come home with a pencil and bag of candy.
She was always the deputy in charge of the confection posse and thus the handle of Silver Tongue was bestowed upon her. If the brothers and sisters were short of money you can guess who came up with the difference. Silver Tongue recalled the puzzling time of courtship as a Malibu teen and communicated to me some of the dialogue that her father would have with her youthful suitors. His most memorable comments:
If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating my daughter.
My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than striping Pacific Coast Highway.
If you pull into my driveway and honk you’d better be delivering a package, because you’re sure not picking anything up.
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck.
I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers too big and teeming with holes. I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your pants full of holes, underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.
I’m sure your parents have told you that in today’s world, sex without utilizing a “barrier method” of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, in this family when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.
It is usually understood that in order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports or grades. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is “early.”
The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there are no parents, deputy sheriffs, or Sisters of Saint Louis within eyesight. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater and a goose down parka — zipped up to her throat. Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided. A movie, which features 101 Dalmatians, is OK. Baseball games are OK. Visiting old folk’s homes are better.
My favorite particle of fatherly advice to one of Silver Tongue’s boyfriends: Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, middle-aged, has-been, but on issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
And that’s the total truth.
Tom Fakehany
I have $100.00 to help elect Remy O’Neill to the Malibu City Council.
Where can I send it?
Andrea Sharp
He seems like a man normally filled with joy and blissful calm. But these days, there are other, all-too-human emotions very near the surface of Rev. David Worth. After 23 years as pastor at Malibu Presbyterian Church, he will preach his last Malibu sermon Sunday. He says the parting is bittersweet.
He leaves for First Presbyterian Church of River Forest, in Illinois, July 1. “I’m going back to where I started,” he says.
It was where he served as youth director, then as assistant pastor. It was where he and his wife of 33 years, Nancy, were married, where he was ordained, where his sons were baptized. It is where God is now calling him, he says.
“It is not even going home. It is a strong sense that God wanted me there. And for my wife and I, it has been a decision we thought and prayed a lot about before we made it. I’m a hundred percent sure.
“Of course, you walk into any new situation and there’s a sense of humility. I have a big challenge ahead.”
That challenge is to do what he did for his church in Malibu: “To help the congregation reverse its membership decline and to bring a higher percentage of young adults into the life of the church.”
He says he did so in Malibu through contemporary music. “That’s where it starts. What is the music of the heart? The language of the community. That for me is one of the keys to the church’s ability to reach the younger generation.”
The median age of his congregation in Malibu is 37, he estimates. In River Forest, it is 63.
He came to Malibu Presbyterian as one of 463 applicants. “I wanted to be the pastor of a 500-member church in a somewhat rural community with a college nearby. And I said, if I have my dream it will be with the ocean nearby. So God gave me the desire of my heart.”
In his 23 years here, he estimates he preached 1800 services and performed 341 weddings, 380 baptisms and 140 memorial services. He performed the wedding of a woman he baptized as a baby.
He says he’s nervous every Sunday, no more so when President Bill Clinton was among the congregants in a surprise visit. “As a pastor,” Worth says, “when you realize you’re standing in front of people helping them make contact with almighty God, it’s an awesome responsibility.”
Inspiration for those 1800 sermons come from “a lot of thinking, a lot of praying, being with people and trying to listen to the issues of life.”
Worth was born and raised on a vegetable farm in southern New Jersey, to Christian parents. He wanted to be a math teacher but between his freshman and sophomore years at college, he says, “God said, ‘I want you to be a pastor.'” He attended divinity and graduate school in Chicago, where he met Nancy. “Saw her,” he says simply of how they met. It was October 1966; they were married in June.
They have two sons and two grandchildren. Doug, now an electrical engineer, is married to Darci, and they live in San Jose with their children Gretchen, 4, and Emmett, 2-1/2. Jay “is continuing his entrepreneurial work,” dad notes.”We were a five hour car ride away, now we’re a five hour plane ride.”
He also served as a member of the Malibu Optimists, Pepperdine’s Crest Associates executive and advisory boards and Keep Christ in Christmas. He chaired the Greater Malibu Disaster Recovery Project, winning a 1994 Dolphin Award as a citizen of the year.
“For us, it’s just been a phenomenal experience to raise a family here, to be an integral part not only of the church but of the community,” he says. “And it’s been a privilege to share not only the joys but the trials of life in this community.”
His prayer as he leaves Malibu is, “That people would honor and discover the possibilities of a relationship with a God who created all the beauty we enjoy and not take for granted or ignore the spiritual dimension of their being.”
His more secular hope for Malibu is, “That people maintain mutual respect and seek to discover common values and goals — so that everyone wins. When the chips are down, this place can get it done.”
He says he may come back for his retirement. “God knows the future. If I had my way, I’d love to retire back here. I’m a California kid. But we’ll see.” So far, it seems, his prayers have been answered.
While the church seeks to fill the full-time pastor position, Associate Pastors Roger Newquist and Karen Greschel will lead the congregation. “I have real confidence in both,” says Worth, “and in the lay leadership of this church. I leave really believing this is the strongest staff and the strongest lay leadership this church has ever had.”
Rev. Worth leads his last service Sunday morning, at 9 and 10:30. A coffee-and-cake reception will be held between services at 10 a.m. All are welcome. The church is located at 3324 Malibu Canyon Road.
