Paradise Cove and Malibu Lagoon Float Up To City Council

The great Paradise Cove fashion show debacle is still reverberating at Malibu City Hall.

You might recall that the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent staged a huge party at Paradise Cove disguised under a movie filming permit.

Yves St. Laurent had tried to get a party permit for the spring fashion show … but that was rejected by the city planning department.

They then went to the city’s film office … a contract Company that issued a film permit for what was actually a huge party.

Plastic sandbags were put in the surf line at a state-protected ocean wildlife area … during a night when fish spawn on the sand.

A company called SWS currently performs film permitting services for the City of Malibu .,.. as well as Agoura, Calabasas and Goleta.

It’s good business for them ….263 thousand dollars in annual business from Malibu alone.

The contract is up for renewal … and SWS was the only company to submit a bid.

City manager Reva Feldman says th enew contract has been tightened up with new legal terms … to provide greater City oversight and tighter controls.

It goes up for a vote a week from Monday.

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After years of talking … the city of Malibu is moving to take control of the Malibu Lagoon.

The city council is about to put out a request for proposals print in depth management plan for the lagoon and the adjacent beach.

And this may set up a battle with California State Parks … which owns and opeates the lagoon.

Also .… the LA County Department of Beaches And Harbors … which controls the beach.

For nearly 30 years Malibu has been content to let those agencies handle the lagoon … and often contentious set of issues there.

This is despite the coastal commission plan that Malibu should tke control.

Reconfiguration of the Lagoon bye California State Parks has resulted in a much improved water quality and fish populations there.

But State Parks has refused to dig a channel in the sand between the lagoon in the ocean.

Surfers used to dig the channel at the west end of Surfrider Beach …. Which funneled send out to the world famous surf break.

Left to his own devices … Malibu Creek has started chewing into the Adamson house monument East of the Lagoon.

And that may be why the sand at Surfrider Beach has retreated … revealing shoreline Dock equipment that has been buried since the 1920s.

City manager Reva Feldman says a Management Plan for the Malibu Lagoon could determine whether the beach area would benefit from regular and controlled breaching.

It will take three to four months to find a team of scientists and engineers.

Teh city is taking the chance that disaster money it sepnt on the Woolsey Fire will be recovered from Southern California Edison or the federal government … to allow thelagoon and beachj management plan to proceed.