KBUU NEWS FRIDAY OCT 7

=.  A stolen Airstream trailer on Dume Drive … a neighbor wonders if anyone has video?

=.  Caltrans plans an astounding 215 million dollars in construction on PCH … 3 times the city budget.

=.  The entire highway is to be made over in two projects totaling 79 million dollars.

=.  Michael Landon’s daughter loses her son to an MTA bus … which didn’t stop.

=.  Don Schmitz says the city is changing the rules fast that projects get bogged down for years.

=.  Mixed reaction … however … last night.

=.  Alex Villanueva bans his civilian oversight inspector from setting foot on the property.

=.  And speaking of pie fights …. The Malibu Pie festival is in 8 days.

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

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Airstream Reportedly Swiped Off Dume Drive

A Point Dume resident is asking people to check their security camera recordings from Wednesday night.

Andrew Lazar is looking for the pickup truck or SUV that hauled away his Airstream trailer … which had been parked on Dume Drive … the main street on the point.

The small Airstream was stolen at 10:20 p-m Wednesday … it had been parked on the street just north of Grayfox Street. 

Lazar hopes someone’s doorbell camera … security camera .. or maybe even dashboard camera recorded the black vehicle being hooked up or driven off from the point. 

It’s a relatively small Airstream … 

The theft was at 10:20 pm the night before last … 

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Caltrans Plans $215 Million In Projects, Including $79 Million Repaving Jobs With Possible Bike Lanes

For decades … Caltrans spent nothing on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

An occasional repair job here … every then years a resurfacing there.

But no big changes,

That era is over.

The state highway department last night detailed 215 million dollars worth of major PCH improvements.

13 projects that are … for the most part … shovel ready and about to start.

Major construction … a cost that far exceeds what the City of Malibu could afford.

Perhaps the biggest … plans to reconfigure PCH from Malibu Pier west to the Ventura County line.

That project was actually announced … with great confusion … last summer. 

Last night … the big boss at the L A Caltrans office apologized for that.

Gregory Farr is deputy director for programs management at Caltrans District 7,

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“We are currently in designed and we are working with the city staff to see what the potential of… If there’s bike lanes out there. I think our messaging was probably poor at that meeting.”

Farr said the City of Malibu will be consulted as the road reconfiguration design progresses.

Last summer … the state said it would eliminate as many as 22 hundred parking places along the roadside to add in a striped bike lane.

That would presumably include parking at several popular beaches.

But the low level engineers working on that could not answer basic questions from Malibu about that.

The Caltrans boss yesterday told city public safety and public works commissioners that the opinions of the city … and presumably of residents … will be incorporated into whatever is decided.

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“I apologize if there’s any mixed messaging on that particular project. We certainly don’t want to install some thing that’s not potentially wanted by the community in anything. 

“I have yet to find anyone that likes removing parking, so we are going to look at seeing what we can do without (having) any impact on the parking.”

Included on the spending list:

• 79 million dollars to repave and redesign the highway from Santa Monica to the Ventura County line.
• 21 million dollars to fix the creek bridge and rebuild the highway at the twin intersections of PCH at Las Flores Canyon and Rambla Pacifico.
• 18 million dollars to build a protective wall between the ocean and PCH east of Big Rock.
• 51 million dollars to replace 12 drainage channels… culverts mostly … under the highway.
• 46 million dollars to move the highway at Topanga Lagoon … to build a new bridge while wildlife funds are spent to rebuild the lagoon.

One Malibu resident asked if some of these projects are on top of each other ….

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MALIBU RESIDENT:  “It seems like there’s a lot of different projects… Seven or eight or whatever the number. Are you going to be trying to coordinate so that we don’t get sequential traffic delays?”

CITY PUB WORK DIRECTOR ROB DU BOUX:  “yeah, that’s one of the things that are very important. We’re trying to schedule and we’re trying to see it so that we’re not on top of each other and who’s doing what.”

One question … if Caltrans plans to spend 215 million dollars on Pacific Coast Highway … with 79 million dollars to repave and realign the road … why is the City of Malibu out for bid on a 16 million dollar project to do the same thing?

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Contractor Goes Broke In Middle Of Midtown Malibu PCH Repaving Job 

And here is one mystery solved.

Why did Caltrans start to repave PCH between the Webb Way and Cher’s House … but then stop???

Officials revealed yesterday that the contractor who was doing the job went bankrupt.

The bond company that had insured the contractor is stuck … and is getting bids from other companies to finish the work.

Caltrans officials said that project will be back underway soon.

But the city of Malibu also has a construction project under design to rebuild PCH in there same area.

One commissioner asked city public works director Rob De Boux … who is doing what????

But one question was not asked.

Caltrans is about to spend 79 million dollars to repave PCH across Malibu.

The city is seeking federal grants to tear all that new pavement that up … put power lines underground … in the same area. 

That will mean hundreds of pavement cuts. 

And years of construction delays. 

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Famous Malibu Family Loses 24-Year-Old Son To MTA Bus, Demands Answers

The daughter of Michael Landon wants answers from the M T A … about why a bus driver ran over and killed her son … and then drove away.

Shawna Landon’s son, 24-year-old Dylan Lupia was walking down the bike lane along Palos Verdes Drive … near the Terranea resort on the PV Peninsula.

Shawna Landon is the daughter of the Malibu TV star Michael Landon … and she is a well known Zuma Canyon native.

Her lawyer has called in the LA TV stations … to share her grief and to demand answers about the actions of the MTA bus driver.

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“He didn’t stop.  He didn’t call 911.  He pulled over in the next bus stop and claimed that he was vandalized.”

Shawna Landon spoke with CBS Los Angeles.

Passers by found 24-year-old Dylan Lupia, … fatally injured … run over by the bus.

The apparent accident was on august 17th. 

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Average Length To Get House Plan OK:  Santa Cruz, 105 Days.  Capitola, 77 Days.  Malibu, 858 Days

Malibu building consultant Don Schmitz gave his lecture at Pepperdine last night … his litany of problems in the Malibu Planning and Building Safety department.

His message …. Yeah he’s a builder advocate.

But that doesn’t mean that Malibu has some serious deficiencies in there way it regulates land use.

Schmitz says it takes an average of 2.3 years to get a proposed structure upon through staff to a vote by the Planning Commission.

If there’s an appeal by a neighbor …make it 4 and a half years.

858 days in Malibu compares to 105 days in Santa Cruz … 77 days in Capitola … 112 days in Newport Beach.

In Malibu … two point three years.

Schmitz says Malibu its way out line … because the city planning staff keeps making up new rules.

One example … Schmitz says that just this week …the city staff decided to change the city’s rules … and make it harder to take out a building permit to do minor remodeling.

Up until Wednesday … Schmitz says … a homeowner could simply get an over the counter permit for remodeling a house … if the project was for no more than 10 percent of the house.,

Think … putting in a new kitchen.

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“Without any public notification… without any rationale being provided… in just the last couple of weeks the city planning department says ‘no more … five percent.’

“Five percent: why? 

“Why are they making it harder to do a very minor remodel?”

One other problem … swimming pools.

Schmitz says the city has just changed the rules on whether swimming pools count  as impermeable ground … which means they shed rain and must count against the amount of hard surfaces that can be allowed.

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“A the city informed everybody that pools will now be considered part of your impermeable lot coverage calculations. For decades they haven’t. 

“Why? Because pools have enough freeboard that when the rain falls (the pool) will contain the rainwater and it was not part of your impermeable lot coverage calculations. 

“They just changeD that. They just changed that yesterday.”

And that means new swimming pools just because illegal at many Malibu houses.

Reaction to Schmitz last night was mixed.

Even no-growth advocates said it appears that Schmitz had made some important points.

But this disagreed with one key plank.

Schmitz said Malibu is the only city in the state that has a specific exemption from a law that requires cities to act on building applications within six months..

He said Malibu should follow the same rules that every other city in the state does … and render decisions within a six month shift clock.

No growth advocates said that is a non starter.

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Villanueva Scandal Escalates As Sheriff Bans Civilian Inspector From County Facilities

As if the pie fight at the L A County Sheriff’s Office cannot get any worse …. Sheriff Alex Villanueva yesterday banned Inspector General Max Huntsman from all sheriff’s office facilities and computer links. 

And another former top Villanueva advisor has filed another suit against the sheriff … triggering yet another caustic reply issued in the sheriff’s name by the taxpayer-paid sheriff’s information office. 

Villanueva is trailing challenger Robert Luna by 10 points … as the polls are set to open next week.

This stems from yet another whistle blower complaint stemming from the video of a sheriff’s deputy holding an obnoxious prisoner down with a knee on his neck.

Villanueva was caught ordering that the video be covered up … he didn’t;t want bad publicity in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder by Minneapolis police.. 

Commander Allen Castellano alleges whistleblower retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, false light.

Castellano seeks at least $10 million in general damages and another $5 million in special damages. 

The official sheriff’s information bureau spat back.

“Outright lies” … “no new information” … no “explanation as to why (Castellano) critically failed in the performance of (his) duties.” 

Remember … Castellano is a commander … one of three former members of Villanueva’s command staff to bring lawsuits alleging retaliation by the sheriff.

Yesterday … Villanueva cited his own investigation into the Inspector General … as the reason to prevent the Inspector General from fulfilling his state-mandated oversight role.

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“He’s not been convicted of anything but you can’t operate it in your capacity and be at the same time be a suspect in a criminal case..”

The criminal case against the civil oversight board is apparently part of the vast conspiracy … Villanueva’s words … of the county Board of Supervisors against him.

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Pie Festival Oct 15 In Malibu

The 31st annual Malibu pie festival is lined up for a week from Saturday.

The pie festival took two years off for Covid.

It’s a big fundraiser and community fair at the Malibu Methodist church. One week from Saturday… Malibu pie bakers bringing their best.

Lots of kid activities.

There is a no-hands-allowed pie eating contest.

The Malibu Pie Festival is a week from Saturday at Malibu Methodist Church … on Morning View Drive across from the Middle School.

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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