Candidates Speak to Malibu West

City Council candidates took to the western end of Malibu on Monday night, as they continue to campaign with the City Council election quickly approaching.

The candidate’s forum was hosted by the Malibu West Beach Club, and the seven candidates running for office answered questions pertaining to Malibu West, including possible development on Trancas field.

Candidates were asked if in the event they were elected to office, could they commit to preventing condominiums from being developed on Trancas field.

Each candidate, in their own way, said they were against condos occupying the property.

“I will do everything in my power not to allow condominiums on that property,” said Council candidate Skylar Peak. “I don’t want to see any compromises made with developers as far as giving them more advantageous exceptions for their bottom line. That’s dear to my heart and I don’t think those kinds of things serve any of us at all.”

“These are really complex problems and you don’t solve them with simple one line answers,” said John Sibert, the lone incumbent in the race. “But I’m opposed to condos on that property.”

Council candidate Joan House said that she would commit to “hearing all the concerns of the citizens,” regarding Trancas field, but that making such a claim before taking office would affect any councilmember’s ability to vote on the matter once in office.

“For anyone to commit is taking themselves out of the voting block,” House said, citing City Council procedure. “They will have to recuse themselves.”

Hamish Patterson, who last week caught the ear of the public after commenting on a drug problem at Malibu High School, once again gave an honest and somewhat shocking answer regarding the possible Trancas field development.

“If you want condos there, if you want malls there, if you want giant hotels there, you know who to vote for,” said Patterson, looking in the direction of House. “Then maybe we can have a few more murders, wouldn’t that be great.”

“We’re about to turn into an ugly, Orange County city if we’re not careful,” Patterson added.

Council candidate Andy Lyon, who began the forum by alerting those in the audience that a majority of his speaking time would be focused on the Malibu Lagoon, did just that, as he went to task to fight against the project set to take begin June.

“In 70 days this thing is going to start if we don’t stop it,” Lyon said. “It’s the busiest intersection in town during the busiest time of year. Traffic is going to be crazy because the bulldozers don’t want be stuck in the mud.”

Candidates also fielded questions regarding the protection of local businesses within the city, which Council will discuss further at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Hans Laetz, who used a visual aid at last week’s candidate’s forum which depicted an advertisement for Sephora coming to Malibu, once again reminding the public that chain stores are not entirely positive for the community.

“You’ve seen the bus ads all across LA.,” Laetz said. “I think the Preserve Malibu movement is asking for such a small incremental step where we could really take it to these people. We’re being marketed as a commercial destination and we are in big trouble if that place becomes Rodeo West.”

Candidate Missy Zeitsoff, who was on the first Malibu City Council, pointed to her track record in response to the question.

“On the first Malibu City Council, we were so concerned about development that we imposed a two year commercial development moratorium,” Zeitsoff said. “That’s pretty impressive. I’m beginning to think we need another stop on commercial development.”

“We need a slow and sensible growth ordinance that would monitor every single project as far as available infrastructure,” she added.

Peak, who is a small business owner in Malibu, said that the passion of Malibu residents does not lie with incoming chain stores.

“I don’t think any of us are passionate about Sephora or passionate about Chipotle,” Peak said. “I will stand up for places like John’s Garden and other local shops.”

Sibert, who will have a vote regarding a potential temporary ban on chain stores entering the city, it is up to the community to support local businesses, whether the ordinance is put in place or not.

“We need a very strong, grassroots driven local campaign,” Sibert said. “We need to drive that bi-local campaign. It doesn’t matter what your ordinance says if those shops don’t survive. They depend on us 10 months a year.”