As East Malibu rebuilds, residents can seize the day and insist on a redesigned area of the city that is safer and more efficient
A little more than one month after the Palisades Fire ravaged parts of Malibu, residents, individually and collectively, are slowly beginning to go forward, planning their next steps in recovering from the tragedy.
The task of rebuilding is daunting on an individual level — every affected homeowner and business owner must navigate reviewing and completing mounds of paperwork: documents communicating with insurance companies;documents that must be filed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA); documents while dealing with architects, geologists, structural engineers, planner and expediters, septic expats, builders and contractors and utilities, children’s schools; and documents exchanged with landlords who are providing victims with temporary housing.
The task of rebuilding part of Malibu is daunting for the community. Decisions — tough decisions — must be made, many quite quickly. For instance, after Malibu residents vociferously protested when the Environmental Protection Agency proposed using a Civic Center parcel in central Malibu for a staging area for organizing hazardous materials, officials responded by finding an alternative location at the base of the burn scar. Clearly, time was of the essence and the community rallied together, thereby obtaining the result citizens demanded.
Seizing the day
Many more communal decisions await. Shall we use the need to rebuild Eastern Malibu as an opportunity, as many advocates implore, to redesign Pacific Coast Highway to be safer for driving and bicycling as well as to be more efficient for evacuating in emergencies? Shall we — as Malibu native Carl Randall posited in a recent town hall — build a continuous seawall in part of Eastern Malibu so as to strengthen the residences that are rebuilt along that gorgeous stretch of coastline? When Randall brought the topic up, a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers expressed openness to that idea. Perhaps it makes imminent sense to explore that option as a community.
Shall we, as one person posting on social media suggested, build a sewer system for part of Eastern Malibu, resulting in a more hygienic coastline sans the stench of septic systems leaking? The community’s long-standing recalcitrance for doing so has been due to a fear of unwieldy development. Indeed, such recalcitrance was at the heart of Malibuincorporating as a city. However, if the system is properly designed, might it not make imminent sense?
Simply stated, due to an unspeakable tragedy, Malibu is presented with an opportunity to redesign part of the town. Perhaps we should seize the opportunity to begin our town planning again in a comprehensive, wise and sustainable fashion. Perhaps we should be vocal — very vocal — with elected leaders at all levels of government, pointing out that we seek — or, as many locals would say, we demand — the undergrounding of electrical power poles. Residents have strongly implored the utility companies to do so, only to hear that the process is too arduous and expensive. However, won’t the rebuilding process itself be arduous and expensive?
If efforts to force SCE to underground electrical poles are unavailing, perhaps those in East Malibu should take the lead of local Joe Geus, the citizen advocate who spearheaded undergrounding the utility poles in the Broad Beach neighborhood. There is an established procedure for residents to take that initiative. They can organize a neighborhood effort, create an assessment district, and coordinate with the utility and with all other service providers using the poles, such as telecommunication companies. It is a years-long process, Geus once told this reporter, and it all starts with getting the citizens in the neighborhood to agree to the effort.
However, those who own scorched properties in East Malibu who are victims do, indeed, have the requisite time. First, the properties must be cleared by the EPA. Next, the debris must be removed. Then, the permitting process begins. Clearly, there is time for East Malibuites to gather, agree, and organize so as to have undergrounded poles.
Whatever the outcome of any such efforts, clearly, there is no more crucial a time for each of us to individually exercise our franchise and to advocate strenuously for how we want the newly rebuilt part of Malibu to look. Clearly, it is time. It is our time. We should seize the day.