Almost 6 Hours Of Input From Public On Fire Rebuild Rules

City Council To Meet At 3 Today To Digest It

Planner Says Views Will Be Impacted By Higher Oceanfront FEMA Foundations

Malibu residents met with the city council for 5 and a half hours Tuesday … from 3 in the after noon to 8:40 last night. 

They sat around two rooms … and took a deep dive into proposed changes in the city’s zoning rules … construction rules … and coastal plans.

There is a narrow window of time … deadline Friday … to completely revise the rules.

What normally would have taken months was compressed into a meeting that was … frankly … remarkable.

What emerged was a list … a long list … of changes … suggestions … modifications … for the city council to consider.

The nearly 6 hours of comments will be condensed by city staff today … and brought back up to the city council today at 3 … 

This time… it will be a traditional council meeting … with the five members deciding exactly what to send to the Coastal Commission for approval.

Governor Gavin Newsom has removed the Coastal Commission jurisdiction for fire rebuilds.

But the city rules are built on the Coastal Commission’s Local Coastal Program for Malibu.

At last nights meeting … City assistant Planner Tyler Eaton said the state’s LCP is the foundation for all the rules in Malibu.

71032 TYLER LCP SUSPENDED

“The governor’s executive order is only for the Palisades fire so we gotta remember that.

“So one of our goals in the LCP amendment is to also have some similar allowances for people not effected by the Palisades Fire. 

“But if you’re affected by the Palisades fire you fall within this order … the LCP is basically suspended.”

The city has now effectively divided into five areas … with separate sets of planning rules for each. 

• beachfront burned houses from January … 
• inland houses that burned in January… 
• inland burned houses that burned in December … 
• inland houses that burned five years ago in Woolsey … 
• and the rest of the city.

The governor’s order has upended things.  Tyler Eaton points out ,… there are still limits.

71033 TYLER COASTAL

“The governor’s order didn’t just say go ahead and build whatever you want. 

“You have to stay within certain parameters and the structure has to be substantially the same location it cannot exceed 110% of footprint and height. 

“New ADUs are gonna be allowed or suspended from the coastal act and CEQA on those properties in the Palisades Fire.

“Another big thing is that the city has full authority to determine what falls into this suspension, so we need to get coastal involved at all to make our determinations … 

“Which is good.”

One major issue … the impact of replacement oceanfront housing being built on top of platforms … as required by fairly-new wave uprush studies from the federal government. 

The governor has ordered the coastal commission to allow like for like rebuilds… And the city is interpreting that to mean the old row of houses can be rebuilt but at a higher base elevation… As required by FEMA flood maps.

Some houses on the oceanfront were built years before there was a zoning limit on height … and reconstructing them on top of stilts may mean structures up to 50 feet high along Pacific Coast Highway.

The planner Eaton said that is going to affect public views… And views from houses on the inland side of the highway.

71035 VIEW IMPACT 

“This person on the land side is getting affected.

“No matter … you can call it what you want. 

“The fact of the matter is there’s a new projection vertically … that is going to be going to possibly have impact on residents. 

“I’m not for or against. I’m just here to inform … I just want to state that for the record.”

Last night included a five hour long listening session… with comments recorded by city staff, and listened to by the city Council.

Today … the staff is compiling these comments.

And at 3 o’clock this afternoon… The city council will begin debating the nuts and bolts of the new rules. 

That meeting may go late and slap over into tomorrow.

The city’s lawyer needs to get final decisions to work over the weekend and present a proposed set of changes to the city council early next week.
The big rush is to get the changes passed as ordinances in Malibu … and then sent up to the Coastal Commission in time for their meeting.

There were some questions that could not possibly be answered last night… like questions about reusing, septic tanks or keeping retaining walls.

Again … assistant city planner Tyler Eaton.   

71034 MARCH 12TH 

“You’re asking ‘can I reuse my conventional system?’

“It is a building code requirement … not for this planning discussion here tonight.

“I keep saying we apologize that we don’t have the answers for you tonight. “Come to our March 12th meeting next Wednesday. These are the questions those technical questions of how to … you know ‘what materials do I need to use on my building?’ ‘Can I reuse my foundation?’ ‘Can I reuse my OWTS?’

“That’s for March 12th.”

Major findings yesterday … recommendations from the public that the Planning Staff says they heard … and will present to the city council tonight:

=. Temporary homes on burned sites may be a little bit bigger … 1,200 square feet .

=. Temporary homes could be occupied by anyone who was affected in Malibu.

=. The pubic generally was unhappy with the city staff’s interpretation of allowable replacement houses being measured by “bulk” … as opposed to the actual dimensions of the proposed new house. 

=.  The public also wants the city council to possibly allow auxiliary dwelling units … ADUs … on houses without two access roads … or on streets less than 20 feet wide.

And there is still some questions over whether the governor’s order to allow replacement houses … allows for those houses to rise up above those FEMA flood platforms. 

That is not a settled issue … planners said last night the city council needs to make that clear. 

One other note from last night … 

The format was remarkable … people sitting around tables and discussing solutions.

Assistant city manager Alexis Brown kept the five hour agenda running … assistant city planner, Tyler Eaton answered questions in a rapid-fire manner.

All five city council members listened.

At the end of the marathon session… they applauded city staff.

Councilmember Haylynn Conrad and Mayor Doug Stewart:

71036 OUTSTANDING WORK

HAYLYNN CONRAD: “Thank everybody for being super respectful, kind, prepared. I appreciate the staff you guys all went well.” 

DOUG STEWART: “I just want to say one thing: Alexis and Tyler and the rest of you: outstanding work.

“This couldn’t be better.”

Today’s meeting starts at 3 o’clock.

Other upcoming dates … the meeting about construction materials … resting septic tanks and retaining walls … next Tuesday.

Tthere will be a meeting for the people who lost property in the Franklin Fire on Tuesday the 18th.

The Franklin Fire urned Malibu Canyon and Serra Estates in December … and the governor did not include the Franklin Fire in his executive order … and the rules there are different.

And there will be a town hall for citywide residents who were affected by the power blackouts … caused by Southern California Edison.

The SCE hearing will be on Thursday … March 20th. 

Public Safety Commission Asked For Ideas On Municipal Goats

While the city council meets downstairs to talk about rebuilding … the city’s Public Safety Commission plans to meet next door in the conference room to talk about sand bags … nd chopping weeds.

The city’s policies on fire protection trimming will be discussed at 5pm.

Also … goats.

Malibu fire chief Drew Smith says goats are needed to thin grass and other fuel in the mountains surrounding Malibu.

Malibu fire safety officials say the city could create a citywide goat grazing program.

County Enacts Anti-Gouging And Anti-Eviction Rules For Malibu And 87 Other Cities

Emergency protections from price gouging on rentals have been extended one more month by the LA County Board of Supervisors.

Last week, Los Angeles County protected renters from eviction who were financially impacted by the wildfires.

Yesterday …. The board extended protections on price gouging for rental housing, short-term rentals, and hotel accommodations.

The ban was written by westside county supervisor Lindsey Horvath. 

She says “no one should have to worry about losing their housing while trying to recover from a disaster.”

The maximum fine for a landlord who hikes rents illegally is $50,000 per violation.

Last week … Board of Supervisors enacted limited eviction protections for workers and small business owners financially impacted by the January 2025 wildfires.

The resolution provides temporary eviction protections for workers and small business owners who demonstrate financial hardship due to the fires and are actively seeking relief. 

Santa Monica Running Low On Cash, Finance Director Says

In news from down the coast … Santa Monica is hitting rock bottom… at City Hall.

The City’s budget is in a “structural deficit” and must continue tapping its “already depleted” reserves over the next three years.

Santa Monica’s Finance Director issued a dire warning last weekend.

Finance Director Oscar Santiago says the city will have to tap its savings account by about $60 million.

Santa Monica has been hurt by a decline in sales tax revenues in its largely vacant downtown mall and its moribund  Third Street Promenade.

“Revenues from sales, hotel taxes and parking charges have all been lower than anticipated.

Changes in travel and consumer habits … plus remote work … have slashed thenumber of people visiting Santa Monica. 

Plus the city took a wallop to its savings account …. $230 million paid to settle child abuse allegations stemming from one pervert in the police department’s youth boxing program.

This story is based on an article in the Santa Monica Lookout newspaper. 

Rain Moving In Today, And Again Tomorrow

A cold front is moving in today … bringing steady rain at about noon into this evening. 

This storm has no southerly flow … so that means not a lot of rain today.

The rainfall. Rate will be under a quarter inch per hour … so there is no threat of mudflows today in the recent burn areas. 

There will be a lull in the action overnight with only scattered shower activity.

A couple of pulses of rain tomorrow … The strongest impulse moves through the area in the afternoon and evening .. with an uptick in shower activity and a slight chc of TSTMs.

Los Robles Pediatric Unit To Close Doors, Closest Kids Hospital to Western Malibu

The pediatric unit at Los Robles Regional  is leaving the area west of Malibu with a critical shortage of beds for children. 

In July … there will be exactly one pediatric bed in all of Ventura County. 

That will put enormous pressure in the hospitals in Santa Monica and Los Angeles … 

The closure of a Thousand Oaks hospital’s pediatric unit in July will leave Ventura County’s estimated 173,000 children with one 16-bed pediatric ward at a county-run hospital in Ventura.

The for-profit hospital becomes the third facility in Ventura County to cease pediatric care in the last three years.

This story was reported by the Ventura County Star.

Malibu Resident Who ran As RFK Jr’s Veep Is Behind Karen Bass Recall

A Malibu resident who ran for vice president with Robert F Kennedy Junior appears to be funding the recall attempt against Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass.

Nicole Shanahan is a Silicon Valley oligarch … now living on Point Dume. 

She used to be married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Shanghai paid for much of Kennedy’s campaign as a democratic presidential candidate.

Now she is funding a Republican-led effort to recall the LA mayor.

Bass is under heavy fire for her disastrous decision to go on a diplomatic trip to Ghana as the January hurricane winds were predicted to bear down on California.

The LA Times reports that Republican fundraisers in LA and San Diego are gathering money to unseat Bass.

Her opponents would have to collect around 330,000 signatures in four months to initiate a recall. 

Her term ends next year.