Ioki Park soccer field design heads to council Monday Play

Plans for two soccer fields at Ioki Park, also known as the Chili Cook-Off site, are going up to the city council for a decision Monday. City staff are asking Malibu to approve the design of the fields, as well as parking, restrooms, storage, sidewalk and a walking path. The design is not finished; they're being asked to approve drawing up the designs.

This is part of an ambitious blueprint for Malibu to build parks at three city-owned sites. Municipal pools — two of them — are envisioned at both the Civic Center Ioki site and at the Heathercliff site on the side of Pacific Coast Highway at Point Dume.

Also out at Heathercliff, plans for a community center with a room for a senior center. Down at the point, down at Webb Way, a parking lot with shuttle service to shopping centers is proposed by the Malibu Chamber of Commerce. And there's a possible arts center on city-owned land behind the Ranch at Cross Creek shopping center. The arts center would be paid for by private contributors to the Malibu Film Society, and the Film Society would then hand over the keys to the city.

But out at Heathercliff there are some questions, particularly over the community recreation and swimming pool proposed for that site. The city-owned vacant lot has stability issues, and safe traffic access is a big problem. When it was used as a Christmas tree lot by the high school, there were large numbers of unsafe turns in and out of the lot from Pacific Coast Highway, and we saw a couple of crashes. There's no other way in or out, and the city staff wants to do a traffic study there.