At the request of Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, the City of Malibu is reconsidering an urgency ordinance, originally requested in 2006, to ban chain stores in Malibu.
This item on the agenda is not for immediate action. However, if Conley Ulich is able to persuade at least two of her partners on the platform that this is an issue worth going forward, the city staff will put together a decree to be presented at a later meeting.
“I began to look at this issue after Malibu got its fourth Starbucks many years ago,” Conley Ulich said.
The security of local business in Malibu has been the talk of the town for quite some time and was especially ignited last spring after the Trancas Canyon Nursery was susceptible to being dislodged.
Some feel Malibu, once a tourist attraction for its beaches and unique shops and restaurants, is now becoming just another outdoor mall with the recent addition of Levis, Sephora, Kitson, and other name brand shops in the local Country Mart and Lumberyard.
Writer and local for the past eight years Ben Marcus said, “One of the problems with small stores in Malibu is they cannot possibly compete with what is so easily available only 30 minutes away in three directions. Drive West to Oxnard/Ventura, or over the hill to the San Fernando Valley or down the coast to Santa Monica/Venice/Culver City, and everything you want in the history of the world is easily available.”
Marcus said he was in support of Malibu banning chain stores. “I have driven a lot around the United States and all American cities look the same: strip malls, Costco, billboards, yuck. I think that Malibu is still charming today, although I think the high-end stores are kind of pretentious.”
Before the Lumberyard and name-brand shops, Malibu had the appeal of giving both locals and tourists the opportunity to buy or eat things not available anywhere else within driving distance. Before Sephora and Salvation, there was a small bookstore and a unique clothing shop. Over the past decade many “mom and pop” stores have had to close after being overshadowed by more popular chain shops.
The Malibu Country Mart was purchased in 1986, by Koss Real Estate Investments and has gone through multiple transitions of tenants over those years. In an interview with the Malibu Surfside News, Michael Koss, the general partner in the Country Mart, stated his opposition to the ban. Koss reminded the council of the city’s study of retail outlets that there only 16 out of the 66 stores are chains and “it is disingenuous to say the chains are coming.”
The man behind the deli counter and the owner of Malibu Kitchen, Bill Miller, said, “I have to make the decision if I want to stay in this. This was never what I wanted. I don’t know that I want to be in the same shopping center where Sephora is five steps away and Nike is five steps away and every brand in the world is five steps away.”
Miller went on to say, “When I came here 10 to 12 years ago this shopping center was all wood. It looked like we had porches all over it looked like we had an old, you know. Except for hitching posts for horses, it really looked like an old Western town.”
When asked about how Malibu has changed over the past decade Miller claimed, “Apparently Chipotle is coming and so that is going to really annoy the people that are locals, it is going to kill Howdy’s or at least really hurt him and he is going to have to make a change of what he does.” Miller continued “These are all mall experiences coming to a place where people used to come here to get away from that, to come to a place where you go to one of a kind, you go to a store that you could buy something where you couldn’t buy it at every mall it was a destination store.”
It terms of the banning of chain stores, Malibu local Marshall Coben commented, “I would say it is clear that if they are successful, Malibu will continue to attract tourism and shoppers other than locals. If they allow developers to direct development in Malibu, we will look like every other rat s*** hole from San Diego to Santa Monica and we will lose whatever charm we still have. People love rural and quint places.”
According to the Malibu City Council Agenda Report prepared on March 2, 2012, planning staff is scheduled to bring a linked detail to the Council at its regular meeting on March 26, 2012, This linked detail will request guidance on whether or not the staff should begin putting together a statement that requires commercial modification to start the public review process.
The question of whether or not banning chain stores will help or hurt the economy in Malibu as well as how that will affect the local businesses still up and running is one of the key issues at hand. With gas prices expected to raise up to seven dollars this summer, it is any persons wonder why people would drive up the coast to Malibu to do their shopping at stores that the could shop at by their own home.
Miller said “It worries me that this place is going to expand and expand. I am a big believer in expanding by consolidating by making it grander by pulling in and pulling back, maybe making it smaller. I believe that, especially in these times, keeping it simple will make better people and it will be a better life for all of us.”
Malibu has been a homey destination location since well before its incorporation as a city in 1991.
The City of Malibu’s General Plan in part reads: “Malibu is a unique land and marine environment and residential community whose citizen’s have historically evidenced a commitment to sacrifice urban and suburban conveniences in order to protect that environment and lifestyle, and to preserve unaltered natural resources and rural characteristics.” The mission statement goes on to say that “Malibu will maintain its rural character by establishing programs and policies that avoid suburbanization and commercialization of its natural and cultural resources.”
Ulich said that her goal of this ban would be so “Malibu can retain its unique character and charm.” She added to her statement “Please note, any and all chains may come to Malibu under the draft ordinance, they just have to have unique signage and 51% unique merchandise.”
An extensive amount of research remains before the banning of chain stores could ever become a reality for Malibu, and there are plenty of other urgent issues going on in this town currently. However, the longer this decision is put on the back burner the more chain stores will continue to open and local businesses will be affected.
council of the cities study of retail outlets that there only 16 out of the 66 stores are chains and “it is disingenuous to say the chains are coming.”
Koss went on to say that banning chain stores in Malibu is simply addressing a “problem that doesn’t exist.”
The man behind the deli counter and the owner of Malibu Kitchen, Bill Miller, said, “I have to make the decision if I want to stay in this. This was never what I wanted. I don’t know that I want to be in the same shopping center where Sephora is five steps away and Nike is five steps away and every brand in the world is five steps away.”
Miller went on to say, “When I came here 10 to 12 years ago this shopping center was all wood. It looked like we had porches all over it looked like we had an old, you know. Except for hitching posts for horses, it really looked like an old Western town.”
When asked about how Malibu has changed over the past decade Miller claimed, “Apparently Chipotle is coming and so that is going to really annoy the people that are locals, it is going to kill Howdy’s or at least really hurt him and he is going to have to make a change of what he does.”
Miller continued “These are all mall experiences coming to a place where people used to come here to get away from that, to come to a place where you go to one of a kind, you go to a store that you could buy something where you couldn’t buy it at every mall it was a destination store.”
It terms of the banning of chain stores, Malibu local Marshall Coben commented, “I would say it is clear that if they are successful, Malibu will continue to attract tourism and shoppers other than locals. If they allow developers to direct development in Malibu, we will look like every other rat s*** hole from San Diego to Santa Monica and we will lose whatever charm we still have. People love rural and quint places.”
According to the Malibu City Council Agenda Report prepared on March 2, 2012, planning staff is scheduled to bring a linked detail to the Council at its regular meeting on March 26, 2012, This linked detail will request guidance on whether or not the staff should begin putting together a statement that requires commercial modification to start the public review process.
The question of whether or not banning chain stores will help or hurt the economy in Malibu as well as how that will affect the local businesses still up and running is one of the key issues at hand. With gas prices poised to surpass five dollars this summer, it is any persons wonder why people would drive up the coast to Malibu to do their shopping at stores that the could shop at by their own home.
Miller said “It worries me that this place is going to expand and expand. I am a big believer in expanding by consolidating by making it grander by pulling in and pulling back, maybe making it smaller. I believe that, especially in these times, keeping it simple will make better people and it will be a better life for all of us.”
Malibu has been a homey destination location since well before its incorporation as a city in 1991.
The City of Malibu’s General Plan in part reads: “Malibu is a unique land and marine environment and residential community whose citizen’s have historically evidenced a commitment to sacrifice urban and suburban conveniences in order to protect that environment and lifestyle, and to preserve unaltered natural resources and rural characteristics.”
The mission statement goes on to say that “Malibu will maintain its rural character by establishing programs and policies that avoid suburbanization and commercialization of its natural and cultural resources.”
Ulich said her goal of this ban would be so “Malibu can retain its unique character and charm.” She added to her statement “Please note, any and all chains may come to Malibu under the draft ordinance, they just have to have unique signage and 51 percent unique merchandise.”
An extensive amount of research remains before the banning of chain stores could ever become a reality for Malibu, and there are plenty of other urgent issues going on in this town currently.