KBUU Monday Newsscript: Church Fire Linked To ‘Transient’ – Parents Urged To Keep Windows Down Carpooling To School – 46 Foot High Wall At Planning Comm Tonight – Ted Lieu Out As Bu Congressman?

=. Another cold day … another fire linked to a homeless person trying to get warm.

=. A little rain tomorrow … a quarter inch maybe on Thursday.

=. Malibu’s middle school and high school double down on Covid protocol.

=. Social distancing and masks… making sure kids aren’t sick before they get to school in the morning.

=. When is a two-story hotel actually 46 feet high? The Malibu planning commission considers that tonight.

=.  Who will be Malibu’s next Congress member?? Probably not Ted Lieu.

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Another cold day… Another fire linked to a homeless person. This time it was in western Malibu… Above Zuma beach… At Malibu Methodist church.

Firefighters got a call about a small outdoor fire at about 7:15.

Sheriffs deputies say there was also a break-in.

They said the man was a transient who was trying to keep warm by lighting something on fire.

Several units arrived and deputies arrested the man.  

He was booked at the Malibu lost Hills Sheriff Station on suspicion of arson.

Arson investigators are investigating and charges will be filed by the district attorneys office… Maybe.

Many Malibu residents are unhappy that district Attorney George Gascon has ordered minor charges to be dropped against homeless people.

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Malibu’s two schools in Morning View Drive are doubling down on safety protocols this week.

This comes as the school has been listed as a Covid 19 outbreak site by the L-A County Department of Public Health.

Principal Melissa Andino says Malibu Middle School’s COVID 19 safety procedures have largely been effective in limiting infection, spread, and impact to student learning.

But the discovery of five positive indicators last week means students … teachers and staff will have to double down on health and safety protocols. 

And the school says County Public Health is recommending parents take particular care when carpooling.  

They ask parents to be sure everyone in the car wears a mask, sits as far apart as possible, and drive with the windows open whenever feasible.

The five cases were either positive tests … or persons showing signs of the disease.

It is not known if the sickness spread at the school … it is possible that these five people all contracted Covid in the general populace … or some combination. 

The case rate for Covid 19 in Malibu is comparatively small to similar locations in the area. 

Both Malibu high school and the code located Malibu middle school or asking parents to buckle down on the safety protocol. Parents are being asked to make sure that their students complete the daily symptom checker on their smart phone and then display the green screen to gain entry to campus.

The number of outside visitors is being restricted further.

If a kid has a fever and a cough or especially loss of taste or smell … it’s imperative that parents keep the kid at home and contact the school nurse.

And the mask and social distancing rules are more important than ever.

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A proposed hotel for the vacant lot next to the Malibu Inn goes before the Planning Commission tonight.

The proposal … a two-story motel on top of an underground parking garage.

20 motel rooms and suites,

47 parking spaces.

And a rooftop deck with swimming pool, spa and bar.

A large retaining wall would be against the hillside behind the hotel.

And that may be a big problem for the Planning Commission.

The hotel itself would be a 24-foot tall, two-story motel building.

The retaining wall up against the mountain would extend up to 46 feet in height above the surface parking lot. 

Almost 12 feet of retaining wall would extend above the rooftop deck

The city says only a small part of the wall will be visible from PCH.

The city report … however … does not state the obvious …. That the view from Malibu Pier and Surfrider Beach would be of a 46 foot high structure.

And as many as 875 truckloads of dirt would have to be hauled off the site to make way for the underground garage.

And once the hotel is operating … traffic is predicted to be 68 cars a day. 

That is below the Caltrans definition of a significant traffic generator.

But the Planning Commission can be expected to point out … other restaurants and hotels in that very area have completely tied up PCH with heavy guest traffic and delivery trucks stopped on the highway.

All this at the Planning Commission meeting … which starts at 6 30m tonight. 

And if you were expecting a hearing tonight on the granny flat policies … auxiliary dwelling units … think again.

Too much piled up on the agenda … ADUs will be held next month.

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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu.

Support for KBUU’s radio covers from Orbit Homes Inc. 

Prefabricated homes are the future of construction. Easy to get permits. Fast to build and install. Cost effective … little construction waste. 

In Malibu, Orbit Homes has a showroom between City Hall and the Malibu racquet club.

Fire victims can check them out in person … and visit them on the web at www.orbithomes.us .

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Malibu is just a flea on the tail of a political fog. … As the State of California is drawing new boundaries for political offices… for the California Assembly… the California Senate… and the U-S House of Representatives.

An independent commission continues to hold hearings and move lines. 

Under the current plan… Malibu would almost certainly get a different congressman.

Rep. Ted Lieu’s South Bay district would end at Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica … but it would get a big new chunk of Westside LA … including Beverly Hills.
Malibu would be lumped in with northern Santa Monica …  the western San Fernando Valley … and part of Ventura County … but not Agoura Hills or Calabasas.  So who would represent Malibu in Congress?

There are two incumbents possibly in that district … Brad Sherman and Julia Brownley.  Brownley … a former Santa Monica Malibu school board member … she got redistricted over 

Sherman .,.. a member of Congress for decades … he had to face off a fellow liberal democrat when this happened 10 years ago.

It’s not obvious where the proposed lines fall in relation to where Brownley and Sherman will run.

And this added factor … Brownley’s existing district will be shifted to take in Simi Valley and other more-Republican areas of Ventura County … making it presumably harder for her to win re-election there.

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An outdoor holiday party in the Pacific Palisades was the target of two armed robbers … who broke into the residence Friday evening.

The robbery went down in the 12 hundred block of Rimmer Avenue at around 7:40 p.m.  That is about three blocks up the hill from Gelson’s.

Los Angeles Police Department told the LA Times that the party was outside … the robbers inside.

Two guests  went inside to get their purses and were confronted by two men with guns. 

The men took jewelry, iPhones and an Apple watch from the women and then left.

The owner of the house told the LA Times “itt’s more frustrating than it is scary.  I feel lucky that no one got hurt.” 

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A homeless encampment of 75 people has been cleared 20 miles up the coast from Malibu.

The Ventura County Star reports that some of the shelters that have been built by homeless  people at Ormond Beach are two stories high … with toilets and powered by solar panels.

Social workers found temporary shelter for 44 homeless persons who were living at the former Halaco Engineering Co. … at the end of Perkins Road in Oxnard.

But another 30 or so people have scattered … many of them to the Santa Clara riverbed north of Oxnard … others to parts unknown.

The encampment was set up inside a fenced beachfront hazmat site… a slag dump on the beach that a company named Halaco used to operate a smelter.

Officials in Oxnard and Ventura County have been struggling to clean up the industrial waste and other offensive developments along the beach.

Halaco is a hazmat site … heavy metals and other toxins leak into the ocean.  The federal government has designed it as a Superfund site … which means it has been deemed contaminated by hazardous materials by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Rain may arrive in Malibu overnight tonight.

Not much of it… But the roads will probably be wet tomorrow morning on the way to work.

Hey second storm… Bigger than the first… Is on track to arrive Thursday morning.

Malibu may get a quarter inch of rain out of that one. 

But more importantly … that second storm appears to be opening the jetstream gate up to Southern California.

Stubborn high-pressure system over the inland desert has pushed the jetstream and it’s winter type storms way up north into Canada.

With this storm on Thursday… that pattern appears to be broken.