Entire Concept Of Fire Station On Chili Cookoff Site Is Trashed, Again
Written by 991KBU on June 4, 2019
Three city commission have each voted unanimously against the idea of the City of Malibu selling a giant chunk of the Chili Cookoff Site to L-A County for use as a fire station.
The vote was made last week … and it came up for discussion last night at the Planning Commission meeting.
The fire department has proposed buying the lower two acres of the 10 acre flat vacant lot … the centerpiece of a 42 million dollar acquisition made by the city last year.
The flat lot in question is virtually the only piece of land in Malibu that could be used for athletics fields … and that was the unstated goal of the city council when it bought it.
But then the fire station said the lower part of it would make an ideal place for a new county fire regional station.
Norm Haney is a Malibu busnessman and resident … and longtime observor of the real estate business.
And he says the county’s reasons for needing what could be the centerpiece of a city park are inexplicable.
NEWSCART 75159 NORM HANEY FIRE
“It surprised me that they were buying property when they had sufficient property already…. the county already owns property in the Civic Center area which is sufficient for a fire station.
“And what surprised me was that the fire department did not show up to explain why the county wanted these two acres. “
City planning commissioner Kraig Hill criticized the entire precept of the meeting last week … where the Parks and Rec … Public Safety and Cultural Arts commissions met together.
NEWSCART 75160 KRAIG HILL
“It seems sort of absurd even farcical that, after the council had unanimously said ‘lets send this to those joint committees to talk about the land use decision and what their expertise could be brought to bear on what should go there, then to be told at the meeting ‘oh no, we can’t talk about other options for the property, we can only talk about the fire station there.’
“So the whole point of having the joint committees was almost negated in the first place.”
Each of the three commission voted unanimously … thumbs down on the idea.
The city council has voted to delay planning on what to do with the vacant land … at least for a year … and concentrate on the aftereffects of the Woolsey Fire on the city.
