Malibu's Housing Muddle

Ever hopeful of a more affable Malibu, I have in the past proposed affordable housing developments for those who serve the city, the teachers and first responders, seniors and deserving others, contending it could bolster our public schools and public service, and possibly lend the civic center a sense of place and our community some civility.

For this, I have been mostly rebuked or ignored by conflicted residents, who have both cheered and chided Malibu’s transition from an iconic coastal village to a tourist town, while shunning the state’s imperative housing crisis and any gesture of neighborly good will.

As for a challenged City Hall, the responses have been muddled, while neophyte Councils have kept their collective heads buried in the sand, content to overpay sycophantic consultants to produce derivative reports to placate if not confuse residents and frustrate regional mandates, inviting the inevitable law suits and bad publicity for Malibu.

With this the sad state of local politics, and not believing in miracles, I hesitate to comment on the city’s latest housing element to be shortly submitted to the State. Though If someone needed a single word to sum up the run-on report, I suggest “obfuscation.”

Its lack of specific sites, schedules, stratagems and possibly some suggestive renderings make the Element all but useless in the quest for viable affordable housing. Put a match to it and it will explode for all the gas it contains.

But to be sure there are some bonbons to be plucked in the report’s bundle of bureaucratic babble.

In declaring that its goals, policies and programs to encourage the housing needs “of residents from all economic segments” the city pledges to “coordinate with potential developers at least once annually to provide information on density bonus, potential funding sources, and available incentives.”

Yes, it dangles liberal density bonuses that would make a Don Spitz weep, as well as fast track processing and, surprise, deep in the report actually cites a precise development goal of 47 lower-income and 17 moderate-income units.

But of course it doesn’t specifically say where, what or when. On vacant land the City owns? In the Civic Center that begs for well-designed low rise multi-family development? The Trancas open space near shopping and schools?

It also notes that Malibu has been awarded $15,803,348 of federal funds in response to the 2018 Woolsey Fire, monies that could be used for affordable housing projects. To date, no developers have expressed interest.

There are other items in the Element that could challenge a befuddled City Hall and a naysaying public, but not wanting to overtax readers, I’ll end it here and await reaction