Malibu Comes To Grips With Its Overnight Coastal Lodging Policy Fiasco

Malibu’s city council is coming to the realization that the city’s current policy about low cost overnight camping or hotels for beach visitors is a dismal failure.

This comes after it learned the hard way that approving a lucrative luxury hotel in midtown Malibu … will mean an $800,ooo “contribution” will be extracted from the developer for a campground on Kanan-Dume Road.

On Monday night … the city council agreed to the concept of changing the rules … and possibly supporting having the city come up with a policy to provide overnight visitor facilities in Malibu.

This comes after the city approved a luxury hotel across from Nobu … without any requirement that low income overnight housing be provided … either at the hotel or elsewhere near the Malibu coast.

That just invited trouble from the Coastal Commission. 

They tacked on a mandatory 800 thousand dollar payment from the developer … towards a campground on Kanan Dume Road.

What a shock.

Although the city did not know Coastal would do that … anyone who has seen Coastal operate might have seen that one coming. 

Last Monday night … Malibu council member Bruce Silverstein says the city policy on requiring low cost accommodations is woefully inadequate.

NEWSCART ONITEPLAN BS

“The way it works right now is we’re bound to the developer’s option … if they don’t want any low-cost rooms they don’t have to have them.

“I think that the LIP should be be that they have to have unless we give them a pass for an appropriate subsidy … 

“… I think we need to be exploring what we can be doing to support the creation of low-cost overnight accommodations ,,, other than the kind that we are opposed to … like camping in the Bluffs. 

“We need to be finding ways as a city to create those opportunities ….which I think will serve as well with Coastal.”

That would put the city in charge … of deciding where for how the low cost accomodations should be provided.

Malibu’s track record on providing low cost accommodations is terrible … according to the coastal commission.

Take last year … 

The city Planning Commission again agreed to allow a cemetery to be built instead of a motel … at the corner of PCH and Malibu Canyon Road.

That large vacant lot is the last place in Malibu where a motel could be built. 

Seven years ago … developer Richard Weintraub proposed a massive luxury hotel there… also with no affordable rooms. 

That massive spa … convention center and luxury hotel complex … more than 500 rooms … underground parking …. banquet halls … it was shot down because it was too big… 

So Developer Richard Weintraub instead decided to put a cemetery there … instead of beds for beach visitors. 

The question of Malibu’s obligation to provide overnight accommodations at reasonable prices … an obligation set forth under state coastal law… was never addressed by the city in approving the cemetery.

The cemetery got a five year permit … which expired last summer.

The Planning Commission approved extending it … with no discussion about Malibu’s need for overnight motel rooms.

Monday night … the city council decided that a subcommittee should study the issue.

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MRCA Starts Ripping Out Private Property, Threatening Owners, On Winding Way West

There is a developing story on a ridge above Paradise Cove… Where the MRCA this week sent in a crew to remove private property in front of the house on a private Street.

The street in question is Murphy Way … where a mailbox … concrete garbage can pad … and landscaping was scraped away from a yard.

The MRCA is the Mountains resource conservation authority… the agency controlled by politicians in the Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley area.

Its executive Director… Joe Edmiston… And staff have been moving against residence in ramirez Canyon and Escondido Canyon for years.

Their plan has been to use easements that they supposedly own … in the name of the people of California… To convert private streets into public park trails.

They are doing this across private property that has been owned by private parties since territorial days… literally since the Spanish land grant was granted for Malibu.

This week … MRCA crews apparently removed mailbox … a garbage can pad ,..,. and landscaping on the side of West Winding EWay.

Several landowners have reported getting demand letters from MRCA … threatening huge fines from the government agency if their so-called encroachments re not removed.

Both sides have lawyered up. 

We have asked for comment … and we’ll be tracking this developing story.

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Parking Chaos At Point Dume Headland Goes Before Commission Today at 5

The parking chaos at the top of Point Dume is on the agenda for the city’s Public Safety Commission tonight at 5. 

The headlands are jammed with tourists most days … and the recent weeks-long closure of the pay parking on the beach has added to the parking demand up on the bluff. 

People are parking everywhere … driveways … hydrants … traffic lanes. 

Parking tickets may not be doing the trick.

Over the recent President’s Day holiday weekend, more than 140 parking citations were written out by the volunteers on patrol force. 

The volunteer deputies are recommending that more no parking signs go ip.

And … the city should change the rules to prohibit incoming vehicles from obstructing the roadway to wait for a parking spot.

The city staff is recommending that potential solutions be identified in coordination with the Sheriff’s Department, the volunteers … and California State Parks. 

Of course … none of this really matters unless the Californaoi Copastalo Commission is on board.

And righty now … Coastal has told the city that it its already in violation of public access rules.

Three decades ago … coastal allowed the city to limit the no parking zones on the point.

But in exchange … the city had to provide a free shuttle up and down Dume Drive … for visitors to reach the point.

That was ridiculous … the shuttle was always empty.

The city dropped funding for the shuttle. 

Four years ago … Coastal figured out what was happening and told the city it was in violation of the no parking agreemewnt/

That letter of noncompliance apparently was forgotten during the Woolsey Fire and coronavirus pandemic.

The matter goes before the city Public Safety Commission tonight at 5 … on the Zoom platform.

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The Mark and Grether Group offers concierge-level service… personalized attention… to buyers and sellers… landlords and tenants … here in Malibu.

The Mark and Grether Group… a top producing team with 35 years of experience… and over $1 billion worth of real estate sold in least… from Malibu’s coastline to the canyons.

 

Final Legal Costs For L A County Sheriff/Fire Malibu Canyon Misdeeds: $51 Million

The final bill has been totaled for the arts of L A county sheriff’s deputies from the Malibu-Lost Hill station …. After Kobe Bryant … his daughter … and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash.

51 million dollars.

Los Angeles County yesterday agreed to pay the final share of that money to the family of Kobe Bryant.

Add up payments already approved by a federal court jury … and settlements made with the other victims survivors … and the act by sheriff’s deputies and firefighters of taking pictures on that hillside … 51 million dollars.

Disturbing … gruesome photos were taken of the crash victims.

The pictures spread from the phones of deputies and firefighters to spouses, bartenders and colleagues …. who passed them around in what one witness said amounted to a “party trick.”

And then …. sheriff Alex Villanueva destroyed evidence of the illicit photos.

51 million dollars. 

Not the first celebrity invasion of privacy at the Malibu Lost Hills sheriff’s station. 

Actor Mel Gibson’s drunken tirade at the Malibu Lost Hills jail got sold to TMZ.

The 51 million dollars will come from taxpayers through the county’s various insurance and lawsuit settlement funds. 

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

Two brand new beers have just been released by the Malibu Brewing Company: a crisp classic-style pale ale, and a new school-style west coast Pilsner.

And the Malibu Tasting Room at Trancas Country Market has two new menu specials: a fan favorite pastrami Reuben, and honey chipotle wings, along with a rotating series of scratch made soups.

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3 Boys Hurt On Electric Dirt Bike, Ridden Wrong Way On Divided Street

In news from over the hill … 

A horrible motorcycle crash yesterday in Thousand Oaks left three teenagers critically injured.

The boys … aged 14, 15 and 16, were riding an electric dirt bike the wrong way on Via Las Brisas.

The driver of a car emerged at a crossroads … stopped and looked for oncoming traffic … and pulled out.

The dirt bike rider was on the wrong side of the road … the driver did not see them coning,. 

All  three juveniles were ejected and suffered major injuries in the crash.

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Real Estate Sales In LA County Plummet

Ice water in the local real estate market.

Home sales in January … fell to 9,938, the lowest number of transactions in records dating back 35 years.

An average January has about 17,000 closings.

It’s always going to be slow during the holidays … but not that slow … one realtor says.

The plunge is an acceleration in the already existing sales driop.

Closings have dropped from year-ago levels for 14 consecutive months.

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So Cal Gas Seeks Retail Rate Hike Of 5% On Top Of Wholesale rate Hike of 100%-Plus

The Southern California Gas Company wants to increase its rates for natural gas … also known as methane  … by about 5 percent.

This comes after the gas company passed on massive bills to its customers this winter.

SoCalGas said the average bill in January for its 21.8 million customers was about $300, more than twice the average of January 2022 — and homeowners with pools or many rooms to heat have reported being charged north of $2,000. 

And that is catastrophic … says State Senator Maria Elena Durazno.

She was at a hearing in Sacramento yesterday.

NEWSCART A 73961 DURAZNO

“My bill went from an average of $50 to almost $500. But I’m not gonna end up out in the streets. I can pay for that.” 

Her constituent …. Though … not able to absorb that.

Matt Baker is a public advocate … working for the California Public Utilities Commission.

NEWSCART A73960 NATGAS MATT BAKER

“This recent natural gas spike has been explained as a temporary phenomenon. But it’s still an incredibly painful phenomenon.”

Some conservatives are blaming California’s turn to green energy for forcing up energy pricves. They say the pressure on natural gas prices is caused by a turn away from coal fired electricity.

Alive Reynolds is the California  Public Utilities Commission chairwoman … and that yesterday is hearing international gas prices… She disagreed.

Alice Reynolds … the CPUC President … says rebates approved by the state will cut costs by about one hundred dollars … one time.

State Senator Kelly Suryato, an Inland Empire democrat … poo poos the rebate.

NEWSCART A73959 NATGAS KELLY SURYATO 

“We have severe ratepayer fatigue. They are sick and tired of it.”

As for the Gas Company … it says the massive bill increases are because of surges in the wholesale price of natural gas.

They claim they are just passing out through.

What they do not own up to is that those wholesale costs include various uncharges from Sempra Energy trading … a whole owned subsidiary of the for profit company that owns South Calkidfornia Gas Co.

Sempra Energy trading is the world’s largest trader and distributor of natural gas and liquified natural gas.

Sempra’s subsidiary … the Southern Caljkforni gas Company … has filed a request for a 5 point 1 percent increase in bills. 

In a press release … The Gas Company calls its rate hike … a learning experience.

We are not making this up … this is their statement:

“In submitting a rate request, we hold ourselves accountable to our customers first and foremost. That means listening to – and learning from – our customers about their needs and concerns. We will be collaborating with various stakeholders in a rigorous review of the request through a proceeding before the CPUC. We are proactively finding new ways to make bills as affordable as possible for every Southern California family we serve.”

The gas company has donated 10 million dollars in shareholder funds to low income ratepayers …. To help them pay for their natural gas.

10 million dollars.

The president of Sempra makes more than 12 million dollars a year.