Council advances vote on oceanfront sewer for burn zone Play

Construction of a sewer for oceanfront houses in the eastern Malibu burn zone took one step forward Monday night. City council members voted to let property owners decide next year whether to tax themselves to build the sewer.

For each property, building a common sewer will cost maybe about a third as much as putting in a replacement individual wastewater treatment system. That's because individual systems would require wave protection walls below the houses to protect septic tanks. Putting in a sewer means hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings at each lot, plus better protection for the ocean.

But this is a numbers game, particularly for the outside investors and corporations that own the majority of the burned-down oceanfront houses. There were 426 houses along the Malibu oceanfront fire zone before the fire. 320 of those burned, but 270 of those were owned by vacation home owners or corporate ownership properties, and those may not want to spend big money to reconstruct.

How much money will it cost for the sewer? Owners will pay a fee calculated by how big the house is, how many toilets, and how much financial benefit they stand to gain. That's a very complicated formula.

The total cost for the sewer is $131 million. Divide that by the 426 properties and it comes out to an average cost of $305,000 per house. That's less than half the amount of seawall costs. It's a big expense, though. Some smaller houses would spend less. Duke's Restaurant would spend a whole lot more.

The final decision by the City Council whether to hold the vote comes next spring.