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

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Parents Once again Demand City To Allow Snack Shack To Impose On Malibu’s Only Park For Kids

NEWSCART 03501 NAMES

“Ali Moses, Aaron, Joel Dunn, Jenny Rusinko, Cali Usmos, T Jennings, Laura Rosenthal, Juan Carlos Lugo, Heather Pitts, Amy Lingo, Sherry Ravensfair, Karen O’Harden, iPhone, Susan Downey, Tyler mirror, Brittany Teague, Rhonda 3644 Rah, Jake Lindo, Wade Major, Howard, Gerard Brandford…”

That is the Malibu city clerk last night … a partial list (spelled phonetically) of the names of 31 Malibu residents who signed p to demand that the city council save the snack shack.

Bureaucrats at Malibu City Hall have declared the Malibu Little League’s storage unit … used as a snack bar …  and barbecue grill … to be illegal

They say it is not allowed by the local coastal plan… in a city park.

The people who wrote the Malibu Coastal Plan 21 years ago left out the existing snack shack … a small facility at Malibu Bluffs Park but a big facility for Malibu kids.

The Little League organization claims that the coastal commission specifically approved the stack shack in 1986…. And should be OK as an existing nonconforming use.

But three years ago… When they applied to remodel it… City said no it has to go.

A plea last night … from an impassioned group of Malibu parents … before the Malibu city council last night.

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PERSON 1, A CHILD: “I’ve been playing baseball for a long time in MALIBU LIttle league and I really love it and I would really love it if we could have a snack shack because talking to your friends is a great time and it’s fun.”

PERSON 2, ADULT: “It would be nice to have a grill there, so that we could eat healthier food and not just bagged chips and Gatorade.

PERSON 3: “This is Susan Downey and Little League has changed our lives in Malibu. Both of my kids are participating this year, and anything that we can do to make that glorious bluff even a better destination is going to help everybody.”

PERSON 4: “I’m a mother of two little leaguers and I agree with everything that was previously said. I do feel it’s important to have a snack shack to bring kids and families together. I think he’s really need this to bond, and they get hungry.”

CITY CLERK: “Our next speaker is Melissa Solano.”

PERSON 6: “your stand that some folks said I understand that some folks said that we shouldn’t even be having this conversation within the community because it should be a right and not a request.”

Other residents demanded that the city council put the matter on the agenda for the first April city council meeting … allow a temporary snack shack for this summer … and start plans for a permanent one after that.

Josh Speigel:

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“About a month ago I came and I spoke to the city Council and said ‘hey let’s get this done.’

“I haven’t seen it come on the agenda.

“(Doing) that will obviously accomplish our snack shack goal, but what it will also do is convince some of the residence that we are not completely dysfunctional.

“This city is completely dysfunctional.”

One city councilman says he has found possible temporary solution.

The old trick … if planning gives you hassle … put it on wheels.

NEWSCART SHACK 100 THOUS DOLLARS

“Some of these parents have gotten together and found perhaps a loophole. They call it a tiny house a concession stand. And what are the mounts to is a on wheels not permanently affixed stand that can be put in place at the existing snack shack.

“And we can have it in place in a few months, at a cost of less than $100,000.”

No action was taken last night …. There little league shack is not on any agend.a

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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. 

The tap room at Trancas Country Market is open…

A chef prepared menu to enjoy on the patio or inside.

Malibu Brewing Company Malibu California

Illegal RVs on PCH Down From 200 to 7, County Cop Claims

L A County sheriff’;s deputies say there were seven RVs parked on Pacific Coast Highway this week.

Malibu Lost Hills sheriffs captain Jennifer Seetoo appeared before the city council last night …. 

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“A huge success. I wasn’t here when we had 200 RVs… I couldn’t even imagine that. So we are moving forward on that… Continuing our outreach to find permanent housing, full-time housing, and dealing with this issue.”

Seetoo told the city council last night … the goal is to get those people into transitional housing.

And clean up PCH in the process. 

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City Picks Flight With FEMA And Wins

The city of Malibu hs picked a fight with the federal government … and won.

The issue … coastal flood maps. 

These are the maps from FEMA … the federal Emergency Management Agency … 

FEMA maps are used to set the rates for flood insurance… And many mortgage companies require flood insurance in areas that frankly get flood

Years ago several years ago… FEMA issued new flood maps for the Malibu coast.

And engineers who designed beachfront houses said the new Maps were crazy.

These are engineers presenting data showing that the FEMA Mabs drastically overstated the danger of large waves washing ashore.

In some places… Like broad beach… The maps showed that existing waves could wash all the way through houses and across Malibu’s broad Beach Road.

Malibu hired an engineering firm to poke holes in the FEMA maps. And last night… The cities public works director Rob DuBoux said FEMA is backing down.

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“The data that FEMA used to calculate the new base level elevation, was based on aerial photogrammetry and that kind of data is somewhat accurate but not really accurate. So what we did with those 14 cross-sections is we got physical survey data out from the ocean going all the way up to the shoreline and got really accurate cross-sectional data to support our core findings.”

DuBoux says in some cases …. The FEMA maps were 21 feet too high.

FEMA has agreed with the city … and rolled back the flood lines.

It should be pointed out that these maps only look at the existing… Current wave status.

They do not account for global ocean level increases… In the future

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Malibu city Council approves $9.8 Million Project Sending Traffic Control To Glendale

A contract for $9.8 million was awarded by the City of Malibu last night… An allocation of metro transportation money designed to make pacific coast highway safer by installing synchronized traffic lights in the eastern half of the city.

The project will take more than a year. 

Part of the project will include installing a conduit … for fiber optic lines … from the east end of the city to Pepperdine.

Lanes will not be closed during daytime hours … during the summer. 

City councilman Paul Grisanti.

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“I’m now in my seventh year of meetings about this project and I can’t tell you how eager I am to see a situation where, when something goes wrong with the lights, the person who is in Glendale will be able to drive to address the timing of the light without sending someone out in the truck who is on triple overtime.”

But in making the agreement with Caltrans for the 9.8 million dollar project … the city council signed away control of the PCH signal timing … to the outside state agency,

We might remind you … two years ago … Caltrans angered the city council by unilaterally installing a traffic light at the Malibu Beach Inn … most of the council had opposed that. 

Last night … council member Marianne Riggins asked … who will be in charge???

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MARIANNE RIGGINS: “how will the traffic malfunctions be identified and who will control the solutions? So basically if we end up with a back up at Malibu Beach in who will adjust that?

“Is that going to be done by Caltrans? Is that gonna be done by am regional area? IIs that something that Malibu does?”

ROB DU BOUX (JOKING TONE): “Yes. Heh heh.”

RIGGINS: “so it happens on a Sunday afternoon and we are waiting on somebody outside the area to fix the problem and we’re stuck with traffic?”

DU BOUX:  “No no. Yes as a general kind of thing. 

“All of the traffic signals are going to be controlled to the traffic information Center, which is in Glendale, which monitors traffic and everything else. But another thing that the project will have that is very cutting edge and new technology is it has dynamic signal timing.”

Translation: the computers run by the state agency will take care of it … says public works director Rob DuBoux.

A cynic might ask … what could possibly go wrong???

The signal synchronization project passed by a 5 to nothing vote. 

Again … it will cover PCH only from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Pepperdine.

There is no timetable for synchronizing the signals in the western part of the city.

And there are no plans at all to synchronize the really troublesome signals … on PCH between Malibu and the end of the freeway in Santa Monica. 

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WETTER WETS, DRIER DRIES, HOTTER HEAT IN THE CARDS FOR NORTH AMERICA

The forecast for today … more global climate change.

In fact… There’s a 60% chance of rain today… 90% chance of rain tonight.

We’ll see scattered showers and wind up to 25 miles an hour… Particularly in the afternoon.

Heavier rain tonight probably at about 8 o’clock.

A whipsaw between heat and cold … drought and flood …The three previous years saw record low precipitation.

Heavy snowfall swept across the Sierra Nevada yesterday. 

The risk of avalanches is promoting the closure of some major routes … like the roads to Tahoe.

Roads to the Southern California resort communities are still closed … residents are stuck … supermarkets .. restaurants and gas stations running out.

Warnings for visitors and locals alike to stay home.

UCLA Meteorologist Danile Swain says the whipsaw effect is remarkable.

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“Now in the past decade we will have experienced most of the snowiest years on record in California but also most of the least-snowiest years on record so another words the snowiest years and also to two or three of the least snow years.”

And Malibu is not out of the woods yet… In terms of water.

Our primary source is to large reservoirs in Northern California… Shasta and Oroville. 

Both of those massive lakes are still below normal levels. 

It’s also possible they will flood this spring

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SMMUSD Finds Major Leaks At Another SM School, Has $2 Million To Fix $7 Million In Damage

Another school in the Santa Monica Malibu school district is in bad shape… and leaky roofs are causing a budget blowout in the SMMUSD. 

There is up to $7 million dollars worth of “critical roof repair” needed throughout the district.

But officials say the district currently only has $2 million available for such work.

One school … the John Muir campus in Ocean Park … is already closed because of water damage.

The new big problem is at Will Rogers school … tucked behind Santa Monica College’s main campus … 

And the glue that was used 60 years ago to stick acoustic tiles on the ceilings is failing. 

School District Chief Operations Officer Carey Upton says tiles are falling.

And back in the 1950s …. Industrial glue was made with asbestos.

The glue does not emit asbestos into the air … there is no risk to students or staff at the school … Upton says.

He told the school board that … quote … “You cannot breathe it unless literally somebody took a hammer and smashed it and made it airborne, so it’s not dangerous or an exposure.”

But at some point in the future … the school district is going to have to hire crews to go in and take everything off of the ceilings – fire alarms, lights, everything else.

The work can’t happen for two years … because students will have to be relocated … and all the spare classrooms in Santa Monica are full.

The significant water damage at John Muir Elementary meant that entire campus had to be relocated. 

The Muir campus was originally anticipated to reopen in August 2024 … but that date has been pushed back to January 2025.

Back at Will Rogers … there are multiple leaks from the rain.

And there is not enough money in the maintenance budget to fully address all of them.

This story is base don reporting in the Santa Monica Daily Press. 

 

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