MSN_060619

8 | June 6, 2019 | Malibu surfside news news
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Malibu planning commission
Commissioners cry foul
over Whole Foods’ vines
Planning director
defends grocer’s
change to its
vertical gardens
Michele Willer-Allred
Freelance Reporter
A new Whole Foods
Market, which is advertised
to open June 12 in the Park
at Cross Creek in Malibu,
has raised concerns among
some planning commissioners
who believe the
project is skirting a major
permit requirement.
At the Malibu Planning
Commission meeting on
Monday, June 3, Chairman
Steve Uhring asked if City
staff has already signed off
on the project, because the
market doesn’t have one of
the conditions of approval
completed: “living walls”
or vertical gardens.
The requirement of the
project’s conditional development
permit is that the
project is required to provide
22,000 square feet of
living green walls.
Uhring said Steve Soboroff,
the shopping center’s
owner, “wouldn’t be
advertising the opening of
the market unless he has a
pretty good idea he’s going
to open, and that he got
an idea of approval from
somebody.”
Planning Director Bonnie
Blue said the city’s
planning department had
not signed off on the project
at the time of the meeting,
but a change was made to
ROUND IT UP
A recap of other Planning Commission action June 3
• Approved was a coastal development permit
amendment requiring an owner to record an offer
to dedicate a public lateral access easement for
a previously approved single-family residence
proposed at 19750 Pacific Coast Highway. The
Planning Commission previously approved a permit to
construct the new two-story, single family residence
at the location, but the California Coastal Commission
indicated it may appeal the project because of
concerns regarding public access. The property owner
was willing to voluntarily add the access condition
even though the appeal period had ended.
the green walls to use vines
instead of succulents, a different
method that made
sense to achieve the same
result. She said the plants
couldn’t have been put in
until the walls were up.
“It’s not unusual for
landscaping to take a while
to grow in,” Blue said of
the living green walls.
Uhring countered.
“That’s just landscaping.
This is required landscaping.
This is different. [Soboroff]
has got to have it in
there. I believe that’s what
the permit said,” Uhring
said, adding the project has
had three years to complete
the living green walls.
Planning Commissioner
John Mazza said he recently
drove around the property
and didn’t see vines
planted on walls that were
supposed to be covered.
Blue disagreed, saying
all the square footage of
living green wall required
has been accounted for, and
some were relocated to different
places.
Uhring said he had concerns
that the project applicants
said one thing to
get their project approved,
and then changed it at the
end and didn’t deliver what
they said.
“It seems to me we’re
making resolutions, and
these conditions we’re putting
in aren’t conditions,
they’re suggestions because
people can change
them after we make them
and not have to adhere to
it,” said Uhring.
Blue said in response that
the green walls will have to
be maintained over the life
of the project, so once they
grow in, they will have to
stay in and be maintained
or it will be a code compliance
issue.
Uhring said residents
should pay attention to this
issue.
“This is a big issue,” he
said. “I hope people come
in and weigh in because I
don’t think this is right.”