Outside Expert On City Planning Department Applies, Publicly, To Run City Planning Department
Written by 991KBU on September 16, 2020
A Malibu architect who literally wrote a book about how to get plans for a house through the city planning department wants to be appointed as the next city planner.
In a highly unusual move … Lester Tobias has posted an open letter to the city council … and the person who will make the decision … City manager Reva Feldman.
The current head of the planning department … Bonnie Blue … is resigning to move to be with her family.
In his letter … Tobias points out he has build dozens of houses in Malibu … and has worked with every assistant planner that the city has ever hired.
Tobias says he he would have an overarching goal … he calls it a mantra … for the planning department.
“Good projects should be approved as quickly as possible. Bad projects should be turned into good projects (if feasible) and then approved as quickly as possible.”
It is most unusual for an applicant for a city job to send out a press release.
And Tobias’s announcement tosses a hot potato to the city manager and city council in the middle of the election for a majority of the city council seats.
