Civic Center Development Plan Obfuscation Grows

Thank you research scientist Alexandra Syphard of the Conservation Biology Institute and her coauthors who published a paper about the wildfires in the Santa Monica Mountains, which was detailed today in the LA Times.

This is a huge help in our quest to push back more than a million square feet of development in the Malibu Civic Center. For some of us, the biggest issue and the one with deadly consequences is the evacuation of thousands of people in the event of a fire.

I've attended the scoping meetings for the hotel and several other projects. The threat of fire has been obfuscated by both the city planners and the developers. Fire has been an issue in that exact area many times over the past decades, and in recent years we have seen the Castle, Ralph's shopping center and a church burned or destroyed, and let’s not forget the homes on the beach below Bluff’s Park in separate fires. The wind whips down the bowl, and fire and smoke prevent ingress and egress on PCH as well as cause blinding conditions for motorists and pedestrians alike. 

For those of you new to the area or who have forgotten what this disaster lokos like – take a look here – you cannot see the road and check out the wind! More here. And here.  

Sorry for the painful reminders, but we have schools, shopping centers and city hall catering to millions of people especially in the hot dry summer months.  This is a disaster waiting to happen. Yet the city fathers and the staff have chosen to ignore these dangers over and over approving projects that put everyone of us in danger. 

Let us not forget the ridiculous overnight camping issue where Joe Edmiston insists on putting our lives at risk with his camp sites in the Civic Center area.  And let's crown this potential disaster off with a 5,000 seat Pepperdine stadium - that's about 2,000 more cars in a a disaster all trying to get out on PCH at the same time. And don’t get me started on the hotel which has both the regular entrance and the emergency exit on Malibu Canyon!

Let's put a stop to this now. There is an being discussed that would cap development.  If you love Malibu, you will read it, endorse it and vote for it when it comes on the ballot.