Taller Oceanfront Replacement Houses On Platforms May Be OK’d By Council, And It Looks Like PCH Safety Improvements Are Dead

The Malibu coastline is going to look a lot different … after the fire damage is scraped away and new beachfront houses are built.

The city council today is going to hash out details to allow houses to be rebuilt at a height as much as one story higher than previously existed.

Homeowners will be given the right to rebuild houses exactly as high as they were before the fire … but those houses would be allowed to be built on top of platforms … up on stilts. 

That’s because FEMA … the Federal government … has issued new flood maps for the Malibu beaches. 

And they require houses to be built 8 feet or more higher … due to the risk of wave uprush.

Some of those burned down houses could end up going up 50 feet above PCH … in a city with a 28 foot height limit for houses that are not on the beach.

Major questions have been raised about how houses can be rebuilt on the narrow finger of private properties between the state highway and the wet sand .. which is also owned by the state.

City staff issued a memo yesterday with some answers.

They say that the PCH Safety Program … which proposed major changes to the layout of Pacific Coast Highway … is dead. 

The city manager’s report says they have met with Caltrans … and 

“Staff has confirmed that the Caltrans master plan will not be implemented during the rebuild of eastern Malibu.”

City staff is asking the city council what to do about houses that encroach onto the state highway.

As of the current date, the plan is for all rebuilds in eastern Malibu to be able to enjoy the same property rights as were present before the fire. 

The governor has ordered the Coastal Commission to allow that … at least for houses that were built legally. 

It’s a question for lawyers … surveyors and the state bureaucracy … if those houses were legally built …. 

Many houses on the beach … in eastern Malibu … encroached on the state highway right of way.

One planning commissioner last year estimated that 75 percent of the houses on PCH in eastern Malibu had structures on the public right of way.

The city staff is asking the city council if it wants the staff to impose conditions of approval that require an encroachment permit from Caltrans for construction activities that take place within the Pacific Coast Highway right-of-way.

The staff report notes that property owners will be required to obtain encroachment permits for any workprtoposed to take place on land owned by Caltrnas or the city. 

City staff also is proposing to change the language used by the governor in regards to bulk of new structures to be rebuilt along the beach.

The key word there is bulk. 

The governor’s Executive Order differs from the current Malibu and coastal regulations. 

The city has always looked at the bulk of houses.

The governor’s order Ispecifies that the 10 percent increase is related to footprint and height.

City staff worries that removing “bulk” and relying on only “footprint” and “height” may allow a rebuild structure a much greater massing than 10 percent.

City staff says they think the governor’s intent was to regulate bulk.

These changes are important … and there city is racing at breakneck speed to get them up to the Coastal Commission in time to make the agenda for the April Coastal Commission meeting 

Architects Group Calls For Eastern Malibu Sewer To Cut Costs and Better Protect Ocean

The group of Malibu architects that is working together is recommending that Eastern Malibu build a sewer.

The loss of 700 houses … and the prospect of 700 replacement septic tanks 

Christopher Sorenson is an architect … working with the other Malibu architects on rebuilding the eastern part of the city. 

71027 ARCHITECT SEWER CHRISTOPHER SORENSON

“We have kind of a unique situation and kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity to not be putting back septic systems in those areas.

“So for Big Rock, putting all the water into the groundwater at the ancient landslide continues to put water into the ground …and continuing to exacerbate with the land slide up at Big Rock.

“And of course, on PCH, even with those new sewage systems even being as good as those tertiary system are, they are right up against the Pacific Ocean polluting Santa Monica Bay.”

Sorenson says building a common sewer … as well as common beach protection protection device like a bulkhead and doing common studies all at once will do a much better job much more cheaply for the property owners along the coast.

And Sorenson says that it says that a sewer could be built quickly.

71026 FORCE SEWER

“I’ve done some research with companies that put in sewer systems like a vacuum sewer system, that could actually happen over that 3 to 5 mile stretch.

“And I do think it’s feasible .

“They put these things in about 6 to 12 months, for a far less cost than for everyone to individually add those.”

Architect Christopher Sorenson.

Malibu’s high major architecture firms have banded together to try to come up with recommendations to rebuild Malibu in a better way … more cost effectively. 

For example… they recommend that the city perform a common geologic study for neighborhoods that got wiped out in the fire.

It would be a lot cheaper to do one big geologic study for say Big Rock or the La Costa area… rather than having homeowners pay for individual geologic studies for each lot.

The architects’ suggestions have to go to the city Council, which will; meet today at 3 o’clock. 

The city council is racing to put together changes to the city’s rebuilding rules.

The city council will meet this afternoon at 3 o’clock to consider major changes to the Malibu municipal code… and the state document that controls the municipal code… which is the coastal commission’s Local Coastal Program.

And don’t forget … the governor has ordered the Coastal Commission to butt out of decision-making for Malibu in the fire rebuilding area.

So this is a golden opportunity for the city … to get the city’s preferred changes made..

Planning Commission Votes 3-2 To Put a 3-Minute Limit on Commissioner Comments At Start Of Meetings – Hill and Mazza Opposed

Malibu’s Planning Commission got blasted by its newest member last night … blasted for repeatedly wasting the public’s time.

Elizabeth Riddick had filed a proposal to move the meetings around … 

To stat with the projects up first… and make the commissioners make their general comments about life in Malibu at the end of the meeting…. Late at night. 

Planning commission meetings are notorious for starting off with speechmaking and bickering. 

Elizabeth Riddick was before the commission several years ago with her remodeling request … she was treated with a lack of courtesy that is familiar. 

Now she’s on the commission … and things need to change.

71028 RIDDICK DELAYED

“I’ve been in that stakeholder position constituent position, and had things on the agenda that were really important.

“And what would happen over and over again is that the commissioners would go on tangents, and speak about things that were not applicable to what was going on.

“And we had attorneys, we had consultants we had people you know up until 4 AM on the East Coast.

“And there was a real … it felt to me … when we were in need as it is a family trying to do something … that nobody was respectful of what we came here to do/.

“And we didn’t come here to listen to the commissioners go on and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on to the point where our our meeting or our agenda item got pushed not once, not twice not three times.

“And I don’t think any of our residents want to have that happen to them.

The new planning commissioner … Elizabeth Riddick … had a proposal.

Since members of the public get a limited time to speak … during the call to the public at the beginning the meeting … the commissioners should also get a stopwatch put on them.

71029 THREE MINUTES

“I think that it is prudent for us as the appointed commissioners to be able to collect our thoughts to be able to respond in a limited amount of time and I think three minutes is what we give them.

“And each of us should take three minutes to respond however we want. 

“And then we move on.”

The Commission chair is Kraig Hill … and he disagreed. 

He said it’s not the people appearing before the planning commission with projects who deserve priority. 

71030 KRAIG BAKED IN CAKE

“Our constituents are the public … the general public the community t.. and the public interest

Our constituents are the public general public community. That’s who we have to be in the public interest and that’s what we have to answer. The first one difference is the applicants whose path has brought them to the commission are here because they didn’t do a clean sheets project and the notion of having consultants and having them show up is kind of baked into the cake that’s something they have to do.”

But Hill may have missed Riddick’s point.

Riddick was not talking about a time limit on commissioners asking questions or responding to project proponents. She was talking about commissioners responding to the general public’s comments … the open mics at the beginning of the meetings.

Sometimes …. the planning commission comments on that can run 60 or 90 minutes.   Now … Riddick was proposing a maximum time of just 15 minutes.

Hill said it was up at the commission chair to limit discussion to keep things moving along and silence planning commissioners such as himself. And Commissioner John Mazza did not want a limit on the time that commission members can talk. 

Mazza argued that it’s the job of the commission chair … jabbing a finger at Hill … to limit discussion from planning commissioners … such as himself. 

71031 MAZZA CERTAIN THINGS

“I don’t think it should be a limited meter time. I think it’s an incumbent upon the chairman to limit … 

HILL: “OK thank you John.”

MAZZA: “No, no, I’m not done ….”

And with that … Mazza went on to his next point. 

Then followed a lengthy debate … about the lengthy debates at the Planning Commission.  After everyone spoke … often on top of each other … this change emerged: 

After the general public gets to talk … three minutes each on matters not on the agenda that night … each commissioner will get a sum total of three minutes to comment on the things brought up by the general public … 

If commissioners want to talk about things that they want to bring up … that will have to go to the end of the meeting.

On an earlier broadcast … we called that “nothing major.” 

We stand corrected … by Planning Commission standards … that was major. 

And by the way, we should point out that the changes were instituted on a 3 to 2 vote … with commissioners Kraig Hill and John Mazza vocally opposed.

SCE Claims 9 Power Pole Failures During January Windstorms Could Have Sparked Malibu Fires, If Poles had Not Been Blacked Out

It’s easy to try to forget … but when the hurricane of fire hit Malibu last January .. the city had been blacked out for several days. 

Southern California Edison has just filed its mandatory report about that with the state … over those intentional power outages called PSPS events.

The electric company says at least 13 dangerous power line failures in the Malibu area were found … where overhead line failures or broken poles could have caused fires in Malibu as the high winds hit.

Edison claims that “It is almost certain” its intentional blackouts “prevented multiple fires from starting during that period.”

“In fact,” says the power company, “SCE patrols observed over 70 instances of damage onde-energized facilities where, if those facilities had been energized at the time the damage occurred with the concurrent high winds and dry fuels, there would have been a very significant risk of starting a potentially catastrophic wildfire.”

The company also says the intentional blackouts prevented faults from vegetation blow ins that could have caused ignitions.

But the company admits that it did some things wrong. 

SCE admits it may have confused people with overlapping and confusing messages about power blackouts. 

SCE sent out … by its count … more than 20 million notifications. 

And the power company admits the restoration of power was delayed but he overwhelming task oi finding and repairing extensive damage to its overhead power poles and lines. 

The company is required to take public comment on its report … and on the blackouts and the flood of sometimes contradictory messages. 

We will post the link on the KBUU Newswire. 

Rain Tomorrow, Thunderstorm and Tornado Slightly Possible Thursday, Then 2 Pacific Storms May Hit Next Week

Malibu could get one inch of rain over the next two days … as a double pulse pair of rain is forecast to hit us.

The first rain should hit early tomorrow morning … with a break in the rain during the day .. and the heaviest pulse of precipitation tomorrow night. 

And there is a 10-20 percent chance of thunderstorms starting sometime tomorrow night.

Minor flooding and shallow debris flows are once again possible, especially near recent burn scars.

There is even a small chance of a few stronger thunderstorms or even an isolated tornado in Malibu tomorrow night.

Snow could fall on the 5 freeway over the Grapevine Thursday.

Looking out over the Pacific … it looks like pretty good rain will arrive Monday and Thursday next week.