Threat of Lawsuit Over City Skatepark Again Spurs Council Into Closed-Door Meeting

The Malibu City council will meet with its lawyers once again. … over the Malibu skateboard park.

Tomorrow at 11… a special city council meeting has been called … behind closed doors at City Hall. 

The public may address the issue before the council goes into executive session.

As KBUU has been reporting… the builder of a luxury house next-door to the proposed skateboard park has threatened to sue the city.

The developer… Scott Gillen … says the city is going to violate the agreement he made to donate the land plus $1 million to build the skate park… In exchange for permission to build five multi multi million mansions surrounding the park.

Gillen says the current proposed design violates the deal … a deal is actually baked in to the city’s zoning code and Local Coastal Program.

The vote to go behind closed doors will be after the public speaks at 11 AM tomorrow at Malibu City Hall and on the zoom net work.

 

PCH Intact After El Niño Storm #2

For the second time in two weeks … large boulders have slid off the cliff above PCH and east of the Las Flores Canyon signal.

Yesterday … a rock the size of a Mazda Miata bounced into the westbound traffic lanes after 4 p-m.

Caltrans had to shove them out of the way.

Traffic was holiday light.

The rocks above PCH are deformed and the strata rests at angle that make this area especially probe to large chunks falling off … 

Two weeks ago … and just a. Few dozen feet to the west … a similar boulder fell and just missed a small wood frame house … that has sat hard-by PCH for decades.

That rock fell so close to the house … that the electric meter was ripped off the side of the structure.

No further damage has been observed to PCH at the Big Sand Dune … 4 miles west of the Ventura County line.

Caltrans has been dumping rocks along the Surfline there … emergency repairs to shore up the vertical sand cliff that has eroded into the traffic lane headed towards Malibu.

The road remains closed from 6 p-m until about 6 the next morning.

 

7 Inches Of Rain In Malibu Mountains Leaves Very Few Problems

A strong and slow-moving storm system will bring heavy rain, gusty winds, large surf and a 10-20% chance of thunderstorms along the Malibu coast today.

Any thunderstorms would be capable of producing brief heavy rain, gusty outflow winds, locally rough seas …  dangerous cloud-to-surface lightning … and waterspouts.

High surf … 10 feet … expected.

The high tide was at 6:28 a-m at 6.9 feet.

Next high tide .. tomorrow night … 8:29 p-m … 5.2 feet,.

Most of Malibu got about 3 quarters of an inch of rain overnight.

Rain totals (2 days) to 4:38 am in inches:

• Upper Deer Cyn – 6.91
• Leo Carrillo Beach – 2.73
• Upper Decker Cyn – 5.65
• Upper Pepperdine – 4.36
• Carbon Bch Sta 70 – 3.35
• Big Rock Mesa – 3.81
• Upper Las Flores – 5.38
• Monte Nido FS – 4.65
• Topanga Cyn FS – 5.91

From the NWS: the Malibu area is covered by the western edge of this week’s Atmospheric River (AR).

The best rainfall rates so far have been over Ventura county but the latest radar shows a large area of increased activity moving towards LA county. 

Plans For Malibu Seafood Underpass Advance

Plans are advancing to build a pedestrian undercrossing beneath PCH at Malibu Seafood. 

The city is going to use 2 and a quarter million dollars from its countywide Metro sales tax revenue … to start planning the under crossing.

An existing underpass … right next door to the popular restaurant … is apparently not suitable for pedestrians. 

It is often either wet from the creek down there … or full of sand from the adjacent beach.

Building a pedestrian underpass beneath a state highway right next to the ocean may be a tricky thing … but we’re not engineers. 

 

Gigantic Malibu Mall Gets Mysterious Facelift Surgery Before It Opens, As City Proposes Chain Store Compromise 

The gigantic shopping mall in downtown Malibu is nearing completion.

Cross Creek Ranch has 110 thousand square feet of retail space … dwarfing all the other shopping centers with an underground parking garage … and building after building.

It used to be called the La Paz shopping center … but Spanish colonial architecture is passe … polished metal and wood is in. 

The owners of the mall and the Malibu City Hall have reached an agreement on enforcing the city’s ordinance against chain stores in the center.

When it was approved … the city made a deal with the developer for certain benefits to the city. 

A small parcel of vacant land. 

Extra parking spaces. 

Things like that.

In the month after that deal… The city Council enacted, a formula retail ordinance… That severely limits chain stores from appearing in Malibu shopping centers.

The owners of Cross Creek Ranch said they were exempt… They had a development deal with the city already approved.

Lawyers have gone back-and-forth and reached a compromise.

Its complicated … 5 pages of single spaced legal terms … and this is a gross oversimplification. 

Basically … the mall gets to lease up to 20 percent of its ground space to chain stores … at first …. 

But once it opens … it has to abide by the city’s existing formula retail ordinance. 

Last week … it appeared that massive repairs were underway at the brand new construction site … with dozens of cement trucks delivering additional cement. 

Brand new landscaping and pavement was observed … having been ripped out. 

No word on exactly what is going on there.

But the underground garage was designed to float above a very high water table …using watertight concrete seals. 

The city council takes up the Cross Creek Ranch deal next Monday.

 

Park-Starved City Finally Undertaking Survey On What To Do With 5 Vacant Lots We Own

It’s been 33 years since the City of Malibu was incorporated.

And it’s been 13 years since the city started buying vacant land … purportedly for future parks use.

Not one ball field has been constructed in 50 years. 

Kids practice in parking lots sometimes.

Adults have no place for their adult sports leagues.

Malibu … a city next to an ocean .. does not have one public pool … except for the overcrowded … undersized high school pool.

The city council has finally started the planning process on what to do with five or six large parcels of land … suitable for parks or other use … in Malibu.

And if you haven’t heard of Tripepi Smith yet … you probably will encounter that company soon.

Tripepi Smith is the name of a company that has been hired by the City of Malibu to ask  people want what we want to seen the five vacant lots.

The largest … and the lot that is most conducive to a sports field … is the large vacant lot known as the chili cook off site.

That’s more than 5 acres .. and it is practically the only flat place in Malibu suitable for an athletic field.

Other people think that it might be a better place to build a performing arts center maybe even a movie theater pretty.

Tripepi Smith is going to sort through all this and come up with a report for the Malibu city council later this year.

 

Planning Commission Gets Yellow Light, Lechusa Beach Access Plan Tonight

Two major issues faced the Malibu planning commission when it meets tonight.

When is replacing the flashing yellow light on Pacific Coast Highway at billionaires beach… Near the liquor store… With a regular traffic light.

Caltrans says motor us or not stopping for pedestrians in the crosswalk under the flashing yellow beacon.

They want to stall a regular green, Amber red traffic, light to bring traffic to a complete halt.

Second … the long running soap opera with the MRCA over beach access to La Chusa beach… Off of the two sea level drives… Will play.

The MRCA has been involved in negotiations and lawsuits with homeowners associations for years on this one.

There appears to be an agreement that involves constructing restrooms for the public… Handicap, parking spaces… And gates to allow the public to have beach access during daylight hours.

The MRCA has been turning up the heat on the city by installing its own signs… Without city permission or permits… on city property.

A low-level MRCA functionary showed up at the City Council meeting last week to demand… In the name of the coastal commission… that the city install signs now.

The Lechusa Beach access plan goes before the planning commission tonight at 6:30 on the Internet and in person at City Hall.

 

Presidential Limo Alert: Westside and BH, Today and Tomorrow

The president of the United States will be on the westside of LA today … and possibly tomorrow.

Air Force One is scheduled to touch down at LA at 3:10 this afternoon.

He will take a Marine helicopter to Santa Monica Airport at 3:20.

And at 3:30 this afternoon … expect rolling road closures between Santa Monica Airport and the Century City or Beverly Hills area.

This may include the 10 or 405 freeways … but Pico Boulevard is more likely. 

The closures usually last 10 minutes or so.

President Biden will be at a fundraiser in the Beverly Park section of the Hollywood Hills … just north of Beverly Hills … tonight.

The President was in the same neighborhood earlier this month for another big fundraiser … and on that trip … his motorcade passed by multiple vehicles waving large Palestinian flags.

You can expect similar protests today … safe to say.

And you can expect a presidential motorcade between Beverly Hills or Century City … and Santa Monica Airport … early tomorrow morning.