More Delays for Trancas Country Market Lighting Plan

Developers are still working with the Malibu West Homeowners Association on concerns raised over a plan for updated lighting at the renovated Trancas Country Market.

"The last meeting they said they were really close. They keep saying we are really close, but they keep going back and forth with the HOA," said Richard Mollica, associate planner for the city of Malibu.

On Monday, the Malibu Planning Commission voted to take the item off the agenda for the time being.

Mollica said the city will send out a new notice of public hearing once the plans are ready to move forward.

The early design of the plans include a parking lot with 43 pole mounted lights, 12 to 20 feet tall.

"The lighting concept plan further indicates that the developer's goal was to keep the light levels as low as feasible in an effort to 'keep home owners and local HOA (with roughly 250 families) happy," a city staff report dated Sept. 27 states.

The developer is working with Malibu West home owners to address their concerns about the proposed lighting plan.

In an email attached to the staff report, neighbors asked that lights at all reserved employee parking spaces be turned off once the businesses are closed and that lighting be reduced at night to the current levels.

A representative for the project wrote in the email that some lights will need to be left on for security purposes, but that the goal is to keep the lighting level low.