BREAKING FRIDAY:  Malibu Steals Replacement City Manager From South Lake Tahoe 

After two years of closed door meetings… Malibu city Council has apparently hired a new permanent city manager.

Joe Irvin, the current city manager at South Lake Tahoe, a resort town just inside California, was introduced to the staff at City Hall late this afternoon.

Unless his contract falls apart, like the last city manager hire, Irvin will come to Malibu from a city with eerie simularities to Malibu.

South Lake Tahoe went through a recent major fire, the Caldor Fire in 2023.  It has a shadow government like the Coastal Commission, in the form of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.  It is also surrounded by government land, and South Lake Tahoe has a main street controlled by Caltrans.  

Irvin was paid $222,397 in South Lake, but in Malibu will be paid around $310,000 per year plus a $45,000 per year housing allowance, according to sources close to his former job.

He just was given a new six-year contract, very lengthy as far as city manager contracts go, by his city council up north. 

Malibu has a population only of half the size of South Lake Tahoe, and a much smaller annual budget.  South Lake’s budget is $297.2 million, while Malibu’s is $110.3 million.

The size of the staff here is about two thirds that os South Lake Tahoe.

This is a developing story and we will have a full report Saturday morning on KBUU radio. 

BREAKING FRIDAY:  Caltrans Gets Final Green Light For PCH Bike Lanes, Pepperdine Sidewalk and Repaving

The 55 million dollar PCH safety and repaving project today (Friday cleared its final hurdle before construction can begin.

Nobody appealed the Malibu approval of the project by the 5 p,m, Thursday deadline, a Coastal Commission staffer told KBUU News.

That clears the way for the state Department of Transportation – Caltrans – to start the project, which will be the first major configuration change to the coast highway since the mid 1960s, when two-way lit turn lanes were installed. 

Two controversial items – a sidewalk at Pepperdine University and segments of painted bike that are not continuous – now have official clearance for installation from the city and state. Because they were not appealed by the deadline, no lawsuit is possible.

The project will stretch between Malibu Creek and the Ventura County line. It will include repaving the highway, plus adding bike lanes for a substantial stretch in both directions.

There will be no reduction in roadside parking, at the stubborn insistence of the California Coastal Commission. The Coastal staff has insisted that no safety improvements could possibly reduce the amount of parking, unless there are immediate replacement places provided. 

Pepperdine had fought the sidewalk at the city Planning Commission and City Council. A university vice president repeatedly claimed that the sidewalk would not connect to any other sidewalks, and would inhibit emergency vehicles from driving across the great lawn in front of the school to reach the emergency helipad there.

That puzzled Caltrans officials.   They noted that there are sidewalks at either end of the great lawn … connecting John Tyler Drive and Malibu Canyon Road.  Those sidewalks were installed by Pepperdine when the school was built 50 years ago. 

And county fire officials did not object to the sidewalk, which is designed to be on state right way, with nosher curbs to impeded ambulances or fire trucks.

Construction is expected to begin this winter and take less than 18 months to finish. 

The package approved by the city is separate from the controversial plan to narrow PCH, remove on traffic lane in each direction, and install traffic circles west of Broad Beach.   That joint city-county-state proposal goes to the city council Monday night.

BREAKING FRIDAY: Coastal Approves Vague Plans For New Parking, Likely On PCH, At Leo Carrillo Beach

The California Commission today approved vague plans to add 26 parking places – apparently along Pacific Coast Highway – in the curves along PCH at Leo Carrillo Beach.

There was no opposition to the plan from California State Parks to add the parking as it replaces a burned-down staircase near the Malibu City Limits sign.

The California Coastal Commission staff says fine … but if you do … you have to add 26 parking places… apparently … along the edge of PCH at a curve on a hill…. 

Coastal staff says the curbs were illegally painted red years ago.

This is at a popular surf beach where beachgoers evade paying in the parking lot, to park on the shoulder.  Pedestrians can be observed walking in the 55 mile an hour traffic lanes to reach the beach, s there is no roadside path next to the steep hill.

Those dangers are not addressed in the Coastal Commission’s plans. They were not even mentioned. 

Yesterday … a Caltrans official in Los Angeles told KBUU News they will contact Coastal to find out what is happening.

The Coastal Commission vote happened without Caltrans comment today.