CITY TO POT SHOP: MOVE

Neighboring Businesses Breath Sigh Of Relief.

If the Green Angel Collective medical marijuana dispensary wants to
reopen for business, it needs to find a new location. The City Council
on Monday refused to adjust the medical marijuana law to allow it do
business at the current location on Pacific Coast Highway near Rambla
Pacifico.

The current city law states that no marijuana dispensary can be
located within a 1,000-foot radius of sensitive areas such as parks,
schools and religious centers. The Green Angel location does not
comply because it is too close too Las Flores Canyon Park. The
facility closed last month after a tentative arrangement it had with
the city expired.

Green Angel management asked for the distance restriction to be
decreased to 500 feet. There was no support from any council member
for this.

"I'm very reluctant to do a zone text amendment to specifically
benefit one business," Mayor Pro Tem John Sibert said. "That bothers
me. I don't think that's good precedent for the City Council."

Jeffrey Valle, attorney for Green Angel, said the law should be
changed because, among other reasons, if Green Angel could not reopen,
it would give a Malibu monopoly on medical marijuana to PCH
Collective. He also said that his client was the better and cheaper of
the two facilities in this city.

"Green Angel is the collective that serves cancer patients and the
seriously ill," he said. "Does that mean that no younger people go
there? Of course not. These are medical marijuana collectives. And
there are plenty of issues with that general proposition. But that's
not what is before the council."

Several public speakers told the council that Green Angel is less than
innocent. Among the speakers was the owner of neighboring Terra
Restaurant. He and others spoke of marijuana being smoked at the
facility, which is not allowed by state law. Also, they said many
young people, who do not appear to be sick, get marijuana there.
Councilmember Laura Rosenthal said it was not her reason for voting
against amending the law, but she did not believe Green Angel was in
good standing.

"It sounds as if Green Angel has not been a good neighbor, good
neighbor to the restaurant next to it, good neighbor to the residents
who are actually very close to it and a good neighbor to Malibu,"
Rosenthal said.

City Hall contract approved

Also at the meeting, the council approved a nearly $4 million contract
with SMC Construction Co. for the improvements to the new City Hall.
This was the final vote on the project, and Councilmember Pamela
Conley Ulich took her final shot at it because it involves reducing
the number of seats in the current performance center by more than
200. She said that Malibu not keeping all of the approximately 500
seats would go down as one of her biggest regrets from her time on the
council.

"I find it ironic that here we are spending time at the council table
debating how the Malibu song should be selected, yet we're destroying,
on the other hand, the place where we could hear that song," Conley
Ulich said. "And maybe it's [the performance center] not good for the
spoken word, but it's great for the sung word."

The other council members disagreed with Conley Ulich's assessment.
They said the new facility will be a good place to hold government
meetings and performances.

"I look it at as an improved space for the community to perform in,"
Councilmember Lou La Monte said. "The way it is now, it really isn't
wonderful for theater ... I've been involved in theater most of my
life, and that's not a great theater ... The improvements that they
are making is just that, improvements."

Sibert said of the theater, "It was never going to be a cash cow for
the city. The place went bankrupt. That's why we got it for so cheap."

Also at the meeting, the council approved a permit and technical
zoning adjustments to allow for the remodeling of the 76 gas station
center at Corral Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway. The project
includes the expansion of the convenience store. But management will
only be able to sell an amount of alcohol that would be allowed at its
current size. Also, alcohol cannot be sold after 12 a.m.