🌊 The Malibu Current with Councilmember Haylynn Conrad

📅 April 6, 2026

Dear friends,

The Palisades Fire shook this community to its core, and more than a year later, the questions it raised haven't gone anywhere. As families remain displaced, small businesses still work to get back on their feet, and permits move slower than any of us would like, the question I keep returning to is simple: are we rebuilding for the past, or planning responsibly for the future?

This week, I want to talk about rebuilding smarter. There's also a new regional agreement on Red Flag park closures, a state wildfire meeting coming to our doorstep, a Planning Commission meeting tonight, a milestone for one of Malibu's longest-standing small businesses, and a few conversations I want to pull you into.

🏛️ This Week at City Hall

🔹 Planning Commission meets tonight, Monday April 6: The Regular Planning Commission meeting is at 6:30 PM at Malibu City Hall. Community input is always welcome, and the decisions made in that room shape the future of this city in ways most residents never see. If you have a stake in what gets built, preserved, or reviewed, please show up or tune in.

👉 View the City Council & Commission page

🔥 Rebuilding Smarter & Fire Preparedness

🔹 Rebuilding for the future, not the past: The hard questions the Palisades Fire raised about evacuation routes, fire-safe construction, and long-term resilience along our coast and hillsides are still the right ones to ask. Rebuilding smarter means permits that move responsibly but not carelessly, design standards that reflect what we've learned, and coordination across every agency that touches this city. I won't stop pushing on any of it.

🔹 New regional agreement on Red Flag Warning park closures: California State Parks, the National Park Service, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority have agreed on a shared approach to closing parks during Red Flag Warnings. When a warning is in place, trails, backcountry areas, and visitor centers across the Santa Monica Mountains (including Malibu Creek State Park, Leo Carrillo, and Topanga) will temporarily close. Roads, developed parking lots, and campgrounds will generally stay open.

→ 🎯 My take: This is exactly the kind of proactive, coordinated step our community needs. Limiting access during dangerous conditions reduces ignition risk and cuts the number of people who would need to be evacuated if something goes wrong. Four agencies working from the same playbook is progress I'll take.

👉 Read the Red Flag closure protocol

🔹 State wildfire meeting coming to our doorstep, April 23: The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection's Zone 0 Regulatory Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on Thursday, April 23 from 1:00 to 7:00 PM at the Calabasas Community Center. This is a chance to hear the latest on draft Zone 0 regulations and speak directly to the people shaping statewide wildfire resilience policy. If you've been following the defensible space debate, or if you have something to say about how these rules will land in Malibu, this is the room to be in.

👉 Read the meeting details

🔹 "A Disaster Diary" screening and a real gap at Our Lady of Malibu: A recent screening of A Disaster Diary: Learn. Pray. Prepare!, a documentary inspired by the 2025 LA wildfires, brought neighbors together around resilience, faith, and preparedness. One takeaway stuck with me: Our Lady of Malibu Church currently does not have a generator. In a community that leans on its houses of worship as gathering points during emergencies, that's a gap worth closing. I'm grateful for the spaces keeping these conversations alive.

💼 Economic Development & Small Business

🔹 Malibu Gym turns 40: The Malibu Chamber of Commerce celebrated 40 years of the Malibu Gym, one of the longest-standing businesses in our community. Four decades is no small thing, especially in a town that has lived through fires, highway closures, and every curveball in between. The celebration also marked one of the first public milestones for our new City Manager, Joe Irvin, who started March 2. I'm glad to have him on board and looking forward to the work ahead.

👉 Meet our new City Manager

🔹 Sea & Soul celebrates four years on the coast: The Chamber also marked a ribbon cutting for Sea & Soul's fourth anniversary, a local business that has kept building community and thriving through a difficult stretch for Malibu retail. Every small business still standing right now is a credit to the people behind it and the neighbors who show up for them.

🌿 Environment & Infrastructure

🔹 PCH Roundabouts: I want to hear from you. Roundabouts on Pacific Coast Highway are a hot topic in our community, and before positions harden I want to understand what residents are actually thinking. What are your concerns? What questions do you have about safety, traffic flow, emergency access, or anything else on the table? Reply to this email. I'll carry what I hear into the conversations that matter.

🔹 Speaking up on PCH safety at Caltrans: I spoke at the Caltrans Commission meeting last week about the dangerous conditions on our canyon roads and the toll recent accidents have taken on this community. Safety on PCH is not just a small-town issue, it's a regional necessity. We need accountability and action, and I'm going to keep showing up at every table where those decisions get made.

📡 Community Engagement

🔹 New Wireless Facilities FAQ for residents: The City has released a plain-language FAQ and fact sheet to help residents understand how wireless facility projects (cell towers and related infrastructure) are reviewed and approved. If you've ever received a mailed notice about a project near your home and wondered what it meant, or what the City can and cannot do under federal law, this is worth a read. A mailed notice means a project is under review, not approved, and staying informed is the best way to stay engaged.

👉 Read the Wireless Facilities FAQ

🤝 Community Recap

🔹 Chumash Day and a memorable connection: The 25th Annual Chumash Day at Malibu Bluffs Park was as moving as ever. One highlight: connecting with the incredibly talented artist Hunter Blaze Pearson, whose work is a reminder of why honoring the original stewards of this land matters. The name "Malibu" comes from the Chumash word Humaliwo, and a gathering like this keeps that connection alive for another generation.

🔹 Rotary conversation on coastal issues: I also attended the Santa Monica Rotary Club meeting at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel, where California Coastal Commissioner Raymond Jackson shared insights on the coastal and regional issues shaping our area. These cross-community conversations are where real collaboration starts, and I'm grateful for the chance to be part of them.

📅 Dates to Know

🔹 Monday, April 6, 6:30 PM: Regular Planning Commission Meeting, Malibu City Hall (tonight)

🔹 Monday, April 13: Regular City Council Meeting, Malibu City Hall

🔹 Monday – Friday, April 13–17: International Dark Sky Week

🔹 Tuesday, April 14, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM: Design Professionals Rebuild Meeting, City Hall

🔹 Wednesday, April 15: Special City Council Budget Workshop, Malibu City Hall

🔹 Wednesday, April 15, 6:30 – 7:30 PM: Malibu Monarch Project Lecture with Dr. Anna Jacobsen, City Hall Multipurpose Room

🔹 Friday, April 17: Deadline for Arts Commission Storm Drain Public Art applications

🔹 Saturday, April 18, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM: HHW/E-Waste Collection & Document Shredding, City Hall

🔹 Sunday, April 19, 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM: Pollinator Plant Giveaway, Legacy Park

🔹 Monday, April 20: Regular Planning Commission Meeting, Malibu City Hall

🔹 Tuesday, April 21, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM: Pepperdine Earth Day Fair

🔹 Wednesday, April 22, 5:00 PM: Malibu Library Speaker Series with Bill McKibben, Pepperdine

🔹 Thursday, April 23, 1:00 – 7:00 PM: Board of Forestry Zone 0 Regulatory Advisory Committee Meeting, Calabasas Community Center

🔹 Sunday, April 26, 1:00 – 4:00 PM: Pollinator Garden Installation, Malibu Bluffs Park

🔹 Monday, April 27: Regular City Council Meeting, Malibu City Hall

🔹 Through May 1: "Heading Home" exhibition, Malibu City Gallery at City Hall

👉 View the full Earth Month lineup

🐝 One Last Thought

Rebuilding smarter is not a slogan, it's a standard. It shows up in how we review permits, in whether four agencies can write a shared plan for Red Flag days, in whether a church has a generator before the next emergency hits, in whether a forty-year-old gym can still open its doors on a random Tuesday. Progress here is stitched together from a thousand small, stubborn decisions made by people who refuse to settle for rebuilding what we had if we can build something sturdier.

If a question, a concern, or a roundabout opinion came up while you were reading this, I want to hear it. Reply to this email or write me at hconrad@malibucity.org. And if you know someone who should be part of this conversation, please forward this their way.

Thank you for caring about this place. I'll see you at City Hall tonight.

Together, we're building a community and better future that works for everyone. Thank you for staying connected!

Haylynn Conrad
Councilmember, City of Malibu
hconrad@malibucity.org