MSN_020719

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Malibu surfside news | February 7, 2019 | 3
malibu planning commission
City urges property owners
to opt in for debris removal
Michele Willer-allred,
Freelance Reporter
Malibu City officials are
warning property owners
who lost their homes in the
Woolsey Fire that it can be
a “risky proposition” to opt
out of the state-sponsored
debris removal program.
During a Monday, Feb.
4 Malibu Planning Commission
meeting, officials
discussed whether opting
in or out of the California
Office of Emergency Services’
debris removal program
would impact whether
homeowners can rebuild
their properties.
Property owners in the
Woolsey Fire area with
destroyed property must
submit their choice of fire
debris removal by the new
Feb. 15 filing deadline.
Owners may opt in, with no
direct costs if they are eligible,
or opt out and independently
complete debris
removal that meets the state
and county’s requirements.
Those who don’t make a
choice by Feb. 15 may be
subject to hefty fines.
Craig George, the city’s
environmental sustainability
director, told commissioners
that he believes the
primary reason people are
opting out of the Cal OES
program is that they want
to see if they can reuse their
foundation to lessen rebuilding
costs.
With the opt-in program,
George explained, the
foundation is automatically
removed, the lot scraped
and several inches of soil
taken.
George emphasized that
people who want to reuse
their foundation have to really
understand what that
means and the effects of
fire on a foundation. He
said a lot of structural or
design engineers that City
officials have been talking
to don’t understand the test
methodology that has to be
done to actually ascertain
whether a home’s foundation
is still viable. If the
foundation passes the test,
it can be reused, but that
can be a “risky proposition”
to take if they already
opted out of the debris removal
program.
“If they decided to opt
out and later do the testing
and find out their foundation
is not viable and had
to be removed anyways,
now that cost is going to be
incurred by them,” George
said.
He stressed that residents
can opt in and change their
mind after a home’s foundation
is tested, saying
“you can literally stand in
front of your property waving
your arms the day they
show up” to stop any work.
At least 670 structures
were destroyed by the fire
inside Malibu’s city limits,
including more than 400
single-family homes.
Homeowners who opt
out have until March 15 to
complete debris removal.
“It’s important that folks
comply with those deadlines
because it will not
be as simple as just leaving
your debris there and
planning on cleaning it up
at a later date,” warned Senior
Planner Richard Mollica,
adding that an abatement
process is still going
through the City Council.
Mollica said air and
groundwater quality monitoring
also need to take
place on all sites during the
clearing process.
Commissioners asked if
there is anything else that
can be done to notify remaining
homeowners, but
George said, in his view,
the City has done “everything
humanly possible to
try to contact these people.”
“If [homeowners] do
nothing, we’ve got ourselves
a bigger problem,”
Planning Commission
Chairman Steve Uhring
said.
During commissioner
comments, Uhring warned
residents to keep an eye on
the “mansionization” issue.
At its Jan. 22 meeting,
the majority of the Planning
Commission recommended
denial of plans for
a new residence on Busch
Drive, basing its decision
partly on mansionization
issues. Uhring said a larger
home went in front of the
City Council on Jan. 28 and
received approval.
Uhring said he took that
as a message from the
council for the Planning
Commission to “stay in our
lane” and that at least in the
short term, that’s the direction
the council is taking on
the mansionization issue.
Uhring urged residents
who don’t want overly
large homes in their neighborhood
to contact councilmembers
before the council
takes up the issue again at
its meeting on Feb. 25.
“Let [the council] know
what you think because this
is going to be an issue that
impacts all of us,” Uhring
said.
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