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Photo by Keegan Gibbs
Malibu politics can get ugly, but the result is still a beautiful city — the last best place in Southern California. The aura of protection Mrs. May Rindge placed around Malibu going back to the early 20th century has inspired other Malibu citizens to pass laws, fight fights, win battles to prevent much of the horrors of overpopulation, overdevelopment, traffic, population density and other gack that infects most of the rest of coastal California and Southern California.
On Oct. 25, 1987, the citizens of Malibu chartered 17 buses and took up pitchforks and lanterns, and convoyed from the Civic Center to a Board of Supervisors meeting in downtown Los Angeles where county officials were attempting to shove a sewage system up Malibu’s ...
But Malibu rallied, and in a process too long to describe here, they put cityhood to a vote. That was 20 years ago, and much of what is now modern Malibu was shaped by the citizens of Malibu having a vision of how their city should be.
JUNE 5, 1990:
MEASURE Y FOR OR AGAINST MALIBU CITYHOOD
Sixty-six percent of Malibu’s 8,538 registered voters went to the polls to vote for or against Measure Y — the measure to make Malibu a city. The final tally was 4,682 for and 892 against. The voters also selected the first council: Walt Keller (who went on to be appointed the first mayor and is considered the leader of the cityhood effort), Larry Wan, Carolyn Van Horn, Mike Caggiano and Missy Zeitsoff.
MARCH 28, 1991:
MALIBU BECOMES A CITY
“There isn’t a city that should feel more liberated except Kuwait … [and] from what I understand the sewers don’t work there either.” — Glen Campbell, president of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.
1992:
MALIBU HIGH SCHOOL OPENS
AUGUST 1993:
MALIBU COMMUNITY LABOR EXCHANGE OPENS.
NOV. 2-12, 1993:
THE GREAT MALIBU/OLD TOPANGA FIRE
What began at 10:45 a.m. as a small fire under bad conditions near a water tower on Old Topanga Road was whipped by 40 mph Santa Ana “devil winds” into one of the largest emergency mobilizations within 24 hours in the history of the United States or the world. Five fire engines destroyed, 458 agencies called, 1000-plus fire companies and 7,000-plus firefighters participated. Three citizens were killed, six fire fighters went to the hospital, 565 fire fighters were injured, 1,200 acres of brush were consumed an hour, 16,516 acres of watershed charred, 268 home destroyed. Total value loss: $208,484,786.
This is why L.A. County now mobilizes outside engines into Malibu any time there is a hint of those “devil winds.”
DECEMBER 1993:
STREISAND DONATES RAMIREZ CANYON PARK
Barbara Streisand lived on a 22.5-acre ranch, first purchased in 1974, above Ramirez Canyon for almost 20 years. In that time, she built five beautiful houses and elaborate gardens on the property. After five years of trying to sell it, Streisand donated the property to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Originally intended as the Streisand Center for Conservancy Studies, the original plan for the property had to be downsized when Ramirez Canyon residents objected to a steady stream of visitors. Now called Ramirez Canyon Park, tours are available only by request.
1994:
THE NEW CITY COUNCIL INCLUDES JEFF JENNINGS, JEFF KRAMER, CAROLYN VAN HORN, JOAN HOUSE AND JOHN HARLOW
MARCH 1995:
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY BRIDGE REBUILD DONE IN RECORD TIME/HIGGY SCORES BARRELS
Approved by Caltrans in January 1993, rebuilding of the 522-foot Pacific Coast Highway bridge over Malibu Lagoon is delayed by storm damage on Jan. 10, 1995. Caltrans offers a $50,000-a-day bonus for every day the work is done under schedule and MCM Construction finishes 100 days ahead of schedule.
Lifetime resident Jeff Higginbotham also found these times rewarding: “After one of these storms, [I] and Mike Marcellino find ourselves alone in empty, never-seen, stand-up sand spit barrels across outside Malibu Point. We didn’t see another car around but ours till about noon due to all the road closures … truly giving us the locals reward!”
1996:
WALT KELLER RETURNS TO THE CITY COUNCIL
Malibu’s City Council elections get livelier with lawsuits and accusations of spying. Joan House receives 2,863, votes, Walt Keller is second with 2,408, Carolyn Van Horn is third with 2,301 votes, and Barbara Cameron is fourth.
JULY 6, 1997:
GETTY VILLA CLOSES FOR REPAIRS AND REMODELING
First opened in 1974, J. Paul Getty’s private museum was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum and was home to Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities. In 1997, the Getty Villa was closed to renovate the building and the collection — some of which was moved to the $1.3 billion Getty Center, which opened in December of 1997.
MARCH — JUNE 1998:
LANDSLIDE CLOSES PCH, HOMES CONDEMNED
Mudslides that began in March and continued into June caused several closures of Pacific Coast Highway and also lead to the condemning of two homes near Las Flores Canyon.
JUNE 2000:
HOWS MARKET OPENS IN TRANCAS
NOVEMBER 2000:
PAPARAZZO SUES STREISAND, BROLIN AND L.A. COUNTY SHERIFFS
Ever notice that Britney Spears’ 2000 single Oops! … I Did it Again is a speeded up, sexier version of Barbara Streisand’s 1980 single Woman in Love? Along those lines, a few years before Spears became a paparazzi magnet, Barbara Streisand and her husband, James Brolin, were sued by a Wendall Wall, a Point Dume neighbor who was arrested by the L.A. County Sheriff for allegedly stalking the celebrity couple. Wall lived a block away from Streisand’s ocean-view home at Point Dume.
On January 8, Wall followed Streisand and Brolin all the way to Thousand Oaks and photographed them shopping for a car. When Wall returned home to Malibu, he was arrested 200 yards from his front door. No charges were filed but according to the Los Angeles Times, “... a sheriff’s spokesman identified him, without naming him, as a “stalker” on national television. All of this caused Wall “physical and mental pain and shock to his nervous system, fear, anxiety, torment, degradation and extreme emotional distress.” Wall’s bail was raised from $150,000 to $1 million, and he was kept in jail for three days. Wall sued Streisand, Brolin and the L.A. County Sheriff for civil rights violations, false arrest and imprisonment, conspiracy, defamation, negligence and conspiracy.
SEPTEMBER 2002:
MALIBU VS. THE CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION
Too long a story to even synopsize here. When the city of Malibu delayed finalizing a required Local Coastal Program, the California Coastal Commission tried to force one on Malibu. Determining its own destiny is why Malibu became a city, and the conflict was in court until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made three new appointments to the Coastal Commission in 2004, which resulted in an agreement between Malibu and the Coastal Commission in August of 2005 to hammer out an LCP that was agreeable to both sides.
SEPT. 12, 2002:
LAIRD CONNECTS FROM SECOND TO THE PIER ON ONE ’O THEM NEWFANGLED STAND-UP PADDLE BOARDS
All 12-feet-7-inches of Laird Hamilton and Gabrielle Reece move into Latigo Canyon in 1997, and Hamilton uses local waters to experiment with this new training and wave-riding technique: standing up on a big board and paddling. In 2002, Laird goes public with stand-up paddle surfing during a big south swell at First Point. He paddles out with an American flag and rides waves from Second Point through the pier.
Photo by Steven Lippman
NOVEMBER 2003:
MEASURE M DEFEATED IN A REFERENDUM
Want to start a war? Get a dozen Malibu politicians in the same room, ask about Measure M, and then duck! Way, way, way too long of a story to detail in less than book length. Essentially, to vote against Measure M was to limit development in Malibu. A yes vote would have allowed what many considered an unacceptable level of development. Measure M lost, and that led to the purchase of the Chili Cook-Off site and Legacy Park.
NOVEMBER 2003:
LARRY ELLISON PLAYS MALIBUNOPOLY
“My son first wanted to go to Stanford, which I thought was OK. The weather is pretty good, and it’s a fairly short drive to the beach. But it wouldn’t be as good as, let’s say, Pepperdine, which is in Malibu. And he said, ‘Dad, what about the education?’ I said, ‘Clearly, I failed as a parent.’” — Larry Ellison, quote found online.
One of the world’s richest men has family that likes Malibu, so Larry Ellison comes to town and buys large chunks of it. Various reports have Ellison buying “five beach properties for as much as $65 million” or “$15 million for what few people would call a large house — 1,600 square feet. But the property has 65 feet of beach frontage.” It is the David Foster home featured on Princes of Malibu: “Ellison bought that 22-acre property for slightly more than $20 million.” According to Britain’s The Independent, Ellison “cast his eye on a couple of restaurants sitting a little forlornly on the northern end of Carbon Beach. He snapped up the Pier View Café for $9 million, and the adjacent Windsail restaurant for $18.5 million.”
FEBRUARY 2004:
THE SAN MONICA MOUNTAINS REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD PROTECTS THE SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS
According to http://www.malibucomplete.com: The Santa Monica Mountains Regional Water Quality Control Board passed new, more restrictive requirements regarding wastewater treatment, horse stables and agricultural runoff. The effect, critics charge, is to practically push horses and agriculture out of the Malibu mountains to make way for large, expensive mansions.”
APRIL 26, 2004:
NEW CITY COUNCIL: JEFF JENNINGS, KEN KEARSLEY, PAMELA CONLEY ULICH, SHARON BAROVSKY AND ANDY STERN
Photo by Bill Parr
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