Planning Commission Hearing on High School Plans Continued Again

 • School District Wants Additional Time for Revisions

BY BILL KOENEKER

The City of Malibu Planning Department announced Tuesday afternoon that the planning commission meeting to hear the current package of Malibu High School expansion plans has been continued from Feb. 19 to March 4.

“The staff has received a request from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to continue this item. This was requested so final revisions to the right-hand turn lane and associated pedestrian and vehicle improvements could be made by the district’s engineer prior to review by the planning commission,” wrote the city’s planner assigned to the project, Joseph Smith.

District officials apparently were unhappy last year with the planning commission’s decision on what they would approve for remodeling the high school campus and successfully delayed the tentative approval of the makeover plan until this year and convinced city officials to have the commission conduct a new, fully noticed public hearing on the revised package.

This is an unusual procedural request.

The new application is to redevelop portions of the MHS campus with a new classroom/library/administration building totaling 20,274 square feet of net new building area; approximately 12,509 square feet of interior renovation and modernization of existing classrooms.

The application also calls for a new 150-space lighted parking lot; a reconfigured 119-space lighted parking lot with an onsite roundabout; a reconfigured 61-space lighted parking lot and outdoor lighting, according to the city’s public notice.

The school district also seeks approval for a new student drop-off and pick-up lane; a right-hand turn lane for about 700 feet along Morning View Drive; two new unlit tennis courts; new outdoor common areas; new fencing, landscaping, retaining walls and grading; relocation of the equestrian trail and the renovation of other existing facilities.