Planning Commission delays yogurt shop over chain-store rule Play

A small family company that wants to build a yogurt stand in Malibu was told no, not now, by the Malibu Planning Commission Monday night.

The closely-held yogurt company has 10 outlets, putting it one store into the City of Malibu regulations that restrict chain stores.

And it is a tiny yogurt stand. But adding it will bump the shopping center just over the maximum square footage of allowable chain stores at the shopping center.

Sadly for the yogurt shop, while they were getting their permits, a different chain store inside the shopping center remodeled and expanded. City rules meant that the addition of the new yogurt store would push the Whole Foods center 400 square feet into violating the city's chain store footage.

That's less than one percent of the total footage at the shopping center.

Monday night, planning commissioners loudly disagreed on whether that was permissible or not.

Commissioner Liz Riddick: "We need to take into consideration that we are talking about 400 square feet. That is extremely tiny. Let's keep things in perspective."

Commissioner John Mazza: "I just want to 100 percent disagree with you. When you were sworn in as a Planning Commissioner, you swore to follow the ordinances of Malibu. OK? They are passed by the city council, not by us."

Riddick, interrupting: "I just want to say, John, that there is something called a waiver."

Mazza, stammering: "No, no, no. I am still talking. May I talk?"

Riddick: "There is something called a waiver."

Monday night, the problem sort of solved itself. The shopping center owners said a different chain store will probably be leaving the center, opening up chain store space for the yogurt shop. So the Planning Commission delayed action on the 400-foot violation until the owners come back with a revised plan.

Who's leaving? The Tesla showroom. The shopping center owners say they want out of their lease. That would be the end of Malibu's first and only car dealership.

But that's not the end of the story.

At least one planning commissioner said she wanted the Whole Foods shopping center to address a litany of problems caused by homeless people essentially staking out parking places for the entire day.

Planning Commissioner Marni Karin says she walks her dog through the shopping center three times a day.

"My problem is this center really doesn't do a very good job of managing parking. There was road rage in the parking lot. There were about 35 kids in the playground there, that has no gate. They were just kind of running loose. There was no parking anywhere. People were parked in the tow-away spots. People are always parked in the horse parking. All the Tesla spots — people are arguing because people park in the electric parking spots when they don't have electric cars. People park in the handicap spots. Employees tell me that they can't find parking because people park in the employee spots. And then there are the homeless people who park in the shopping center and stay there all day."

And on that complaint, the shopping center agrees.

Leasing agent Mitzi Reyes told the Planning Commission that she herself had a bad experience with a loud and disruptive homeless person in her shopping center parking lot Sunday.

"I'm not gonna say that he was a patron of our center. But he certainly was being excessively loud and causing a disruption to the patrons of our center, not feel welcome. We do have security on site Monday through Sunday. And we did ask the sheriff, but unfortunately they were not able to remove the individual because he was not in the store, he was in the common area, and we just had to take that negativity in the shopping center. So I understand what you're saying about the homeless concern."

That's Mitzi Reyes, the leasing agent of the shopping center that is the home of Whole Foods.

Bottom line: Go Greek Yogurt has to come back after Tesla leaves.

You may notice that KBUU News is dancing around the name of the shopping center. The new owners now call it "Malibu Park at Cross Creek Center." Malibu Park has been the official name of a residential neighborhood above Zuma Beach since 1962. The shopping center has taken the same name, causing some confusion. So we will just call it the Whole Foods Market Center.