=.  A sauna catches fire up Trancas Canyon Road … at least four car crashes over the weekend.

=.  A man with a machete causes a three hour PCH closure at the Getty Villa. 

=.  Dramatically scaled-back plans for Westwood Beach Road emerge.

=.  A big bling name announces plans to convert a house on Morningview Drive into a big bling clubhouse.

=.  Pacaso expanding its vacation time share conversions up the malibu coast.

=.  And a slight chance of snow in the forecast for tomorrow night.

Malibu Weekend: 4 Crashes, A Sauna Catches Fire and PCH Closed For A Guy In The Surf With A Machete

A house caught fire in the Malibu West neighborhood.  More specifically … a sauna.

The fire was reported just 7 at a house near Trancas Canyon park … up the hill on Trancas Canyon Road.

Electrical wiring at a sauna was blamed by the fire department. 

Not only the sauna … but a portion of the house burned, 

Not injuries were reported.

At about the same ,… two cars crashed head on in Malibu Canyon.

That was at about 745.  The crash was near Piuma Road.  Two people were reported seriously injured.   

That was one of four crashes over the weekend on PCH.

And yesterday afternoon … in the heart of the beach day madness … LAPD and sheriff’s deputies closed the coats highway at the LA City Limit.

Both Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department units were engaged with man … armed with machete … who attracted their attention at 12:30.

This was outside the Getty Museum on  Pacific Coast Highway at Coastline Drive at around 12:30 p.m.  The highway was closed for nearly three hours … until around 3:45 p.m. … when the suspect was taken into custody.

Lifeguards went back into the water to recover the machete.  No injuries were reported.

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Westward Beach Rd Widening Options Scaled Way Back

Malibu’s city hall has dropped plans for any sand wall or large beach walk along Westward Beach Road at Free Zuma Beach.

City officials have unveiled four alternatives … for residents to consider.

One of them is to do nothing at all.

The other three are very modest … add a sidewalk … either on the beach side … or just on the inland side … or both sides.

Gone is any talk of angled parking.

Gone is any ocean wall to keep sand on the beach. 

The Malibu city government was ready to go to bid… Ready to construct an elaborate system of Seawall’s roadwidening angled parking and sidewalks along free Zuma Beach.

The plan had been working its way through city government since it was first proposed by members of the public works commission back in 2016.

But the brakes got slammed on when point doom residence pointed out that no wave up reach or environmental studies have been done on the project… Which was planned to eat up a large swath of sand along broad Beach Road.

Many residence on point doom were alarmed to learn of the project… Seven years after public carings had begun on it.

Now the city is about to lose the metro countywide sales tax money set aside for this specific project… Although it could be used on different projects in Malibu.

That entire issue goes before a joint meeting of the city public works commission and the city public safety commission… scheduled to meet together at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon.

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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 .

 

Morning View Dr House Proposed For Clubhouse Conversion By Bling King

A press release they got picked up by the New York post indicates that a swanky private club is planned for Morning View Drive..

Plans were leaked over the weekend to a New York tabloid newspaper … the New York post plans to convert a mansion on Morning View Drive into a clubhouse for a social club.
is set to become a blinged-out clubhouse.

A millionaire playboy turned actor from Singapore is behind the purchase of a 2.3 acre estate on Morning View Drive … next door to Lady Gaga’s house. 

The New York Post reports that the new owners are the privately-funded Society 1 club.   And that a star of a Netflix show called “Bling Empire” is the face of the club.

The press release gushes that part of the house in Malibu Park will be “demolished” and rebuilt for Society 1 … which “will use the home for special events and a place for members to relax.”

“The home will also be used to support the club’s mentorship programs and AAPI fundraisers.” We assume AAPI means Asian-American Pacific Islanders.

The press release notes that the next-door neighbor… Lady Gaga… is a major attraction.

The house used to be owned by various TV stars… and most recently was owned by the Herbalife owners… who used it as a media center as well.

A quick look at the Malibu zoning codes shows that clubhouses are allowed only for immediate area residents … like a tennis clubhouse.

And like all properties in Malibu … parties are special events … and every property is allowed six temporary use permits for large parties per year. 

But that city code was written decades ago … long before converting residential neighborhood homes into bling palaces was ever anticipated. 

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Support for KBUU Radio also comes the the Malibu Association of Realtors.

When choosing someone to represent you when you buy … sell or rent a house … local knowledge is very important.

Malibu zoning rules … Coastal Commission rules …

Members of the Malibu Association of Realtors are local experts.

The Malibu Association of Realtors …  supporters of our local community … and supporters of local radio 99.1 KBUU.

 

Pacaso Expands Malibu Time Share Houses

And up and down the Malibu … the time share company Pacaso is buying more houses and selling fractional interest in them.

A 15 million dollar mansion across the highway from Geoffrey’s is for sale for 2 and a quarter million dollars … for a one eighth fractional interest.

Just down the highway … in Escondido Canyon … just under 1 million dollars can buy you a share of a 6 point 5 million dollar house.

And up at Broad Beach … another house has now been converted into a time share. 

In Palm Springs … the city has called Pacaso a time share and that city claims time shares in its residential neighborhoods are illegal.

But it has sued a small city in the Napa Valley … Saint Helena …. over its efforts to have Pacaso ousted. 

Up in Napa .,.. Pacaso pulled out of a small house in a residential neighborhood after community backlash.

Pacaso has pulled back a little.

They have expanded their owner code of conduct.

Decibel limits on all home sound systems.

Local neighborhood liaisons, a “dedicated point of contact” available to assist neighbors of Pacaso properties.

And the company will donated 20 thousand dollars per property to support local affordable housing nonprofits.

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Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Brewing Company.

Malibu Brewing Company is a locally owned craft brewery, proudly supporting our community, and local public radio. 

Just released: a limited, holiday-spiced Winter Ale …  a perfect fireside companion.

It makes a special gift for the beer-lovers on your list.

Find Malibu Brewing Company premium craft beer in select retailers, or order direct at brew malibu dot com

AQMD Charges City Of LA Is Spewing Smog Gas Over Santa Monica Bay

The city of Los Angeles has been hit with a serious air quality violation by the regional smog police.

The South Coast air quality management District says the gigantic city of LA suits treatment plant next to LAX is belching unmeasured amounts of nitrogen oxide… So much so that they’re not even measuring it.

The Hyperion water reclamation plant on imperial highway is accused of being out of compliance with regional smog rules since 2015.

Hyperion burns off gases using flares… And two of the six flare stations emits an acceptable levels of nitrogen oxide.

N-O-2 is a potent smog maker.

On days when the wind is blowing out to see from LA… The brown haze visible on the Malibu horizon is substantially composed of an O2.

The Southbay daily newspaper … the Breeze … broke the story.

The smog regulating agency says the city of LA is required to test the pollution from Hyperion’s flare systems at least once every five years.

Even that minimal requirement hasn’t been done on some of the flares since 2015.

The Los Angeles city agency last performed a test in July 2015, according to the petition AQMD officials filed with its hearing board on Feb. 15. During that test, the flare system exceeded the permitted level of digester gas by 515 standard cubic feet per minute, though it’s unclear whether that’s a significant amount.

Three of the six flares at Hyperion may have emitted significant  amloiunts of air pollution … in excess of the plants permission.

Hyperion treats sewage effluent from the vast city of Los Angeles sanitation system …

Last summer there was a gigantic sewage spill…. 17 million gallons of war sewage had to be dumped into the ocean just off LAX.

LA officials failed to notify lifeguards … and as a result beaches in the Manhattan and Dockweiler beach areas were not closed as needed.

No sewage reached the Santa Monica or Malibu areas.

Hyperion operators could be hit with civil penalties up to $10,000 per day by the AQMD.

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Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Foundation.

The Malibu Foundation underwrote the KBUU solar panels and batteries at the transmitter … which keeps KBUU’s FM transmitting on 99.1 during storms and blackouts… 24 seven… on clean renewable Malibu sunshine.

Santa Cruz Freeway Gets Cougar Overpass, Agoura Overpass Now Costs $90 Million

Construction began Friday on the wildlife overpass above the Busy freeway linking Santa Cruz and San Jose.

Four mountain lions are among the 350-plus animals who have been killed at the Highway 17 wildlife crossing. 

Dozens of people have been injured in those crashes as well.

That’s a $17 million mountain lion bridge… but it’s also a very narrow freeway..

Down here… Funding is still being assembled for a mountain lion bridge across the 101 freeway to link the mountains near Malibu with mountains and the rest of the state. 

The cost estimate for the 101 bridge is now $90 million.

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This is Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … the day edition … I’m Hans Laetz reporting. 

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KBUU NEWS MONDAY FEB 21

=.  A sauna catches fire up Trancas Canyon Road.

=.  At least four car crashes over the weekend.

=.  Dramatically scaled-back plans for Westwood Beach Road emerge.

=.  A big bling name announces plans to convert a house on Morningview Drive into a big bling clubhouse.

=.  Pacaso expanding its vacation time share conversions up the malibu coast.

=.  And a slight chance of snow in the forecast for tomorrow night.

You can hear the news live every morning until 9:30 on KBUU.

FM 99.1 in western Malibu.  Also: streaming at www.radiomalibu.net

Between 10 and 2 … you can hear the newscast playback loop on KBU2. That’s on FM 99.1 HD2 in your car, or streaming at s7.viastreaming.net/6500

If humanly possible, the KBUU NewsScript is usually published at around midday at www.radiomalibu.net