Malibu Beach Inn Traffic Light Advances To Council Next Week

Malibu gets a break this week.

A quirk in the calendar means no Malibu city council or planning commission meeting this week.

But next weeks city Council meeting … the last before the election … will see a major item come up.

It’s the request by the owners of the Malibu Beach Inn to relocate their parking lot onto the inland Side of Pacific Coast Highway … to make room for a swimming pool in the parking lot.

The idea of splitting a business onto two sides of PCH in the busiest part of Malibu has raised huge objections.

People have been voicing worries at city council meetings … about the prospects of parking valets shuttling back-and-forth across PCH between the hotel and its new parking lot across the street.

Of course .. that is already happening just down the street at Nobu … where the city is trying to enforce city ordinances against parking on the wrong side of the street.

Owners of the hotel also infuriated Malibu motorists …. when they tied up traffic last May … to install the wiring for a new traffic light just east of the pier traffic light.

The traffic light was approved by Caltrans and the state coastal commission before the city council had a chance to act on the proposed parking lot across the street.

City officials are not quite sure how that happened … but some on the planning commission have criticized City hall bureaucrats for failing to block the new traffic light at Caltrans.

The coastal commission approved the traffic light in order to provide better beach access … down a stairway that has yet to be built … to a beach that is all rocks at high tide.

That controversial matter goes before the city council next Monday.