🌊 The Malibu Current with Councilmember Haylynn Conrad

📅 May 4, 2026

Hello Malibu,

May the 4th be with you. The cultural calendar gets one good pun a year, and today is the day to use it. The civic calendar this week is busier than the joke deserves: Planning Commission gavels in tonight, the Public Safety Commission meets Wednesday, our Youth Commission meets Thursday, and a national skateboarding legend is actually coming to town. Behind all of that, the Council's April 27 meeting put real wins on the board for housing, fire recovery, and the small businesses still working their way back. Here is the week ahead.

🏛️ This Week at City Hall

🔹 Regular Planning Commission Meeting tonight, Monday May 4 at 6:30 PM: The Commission convenes in Council Chambers at Malibu City Hall. Meetings are hybrid, so you can join in person or follow along from home. The decisions made in that room shape what gets built, preserved, and reviewed across this city. Public input is genuinely welcome, and on a night with as many ongoing rebuild and policy threads as we have right now, your voice in the record carries weight.

👉 View tonight's Planning Commission agenda

🔹 Three commission meetings this week worth knowing about: In addition to Planning tonight, the Public Safety Commission meets Wednesday, May 6 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room at City Hall. The Harry Barovsky Memorial Youth Commission follows on Thursday, May 7 from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, also at City Hall. These are the rooms where some of the most consequential ground-level work in this city actually gets done, often with the smallest audiences. If preparedness, public safety, or how Malibu invests in its young people matter to you, these are good places to show up.

→ 🎯 My take: Commissions are where policy gets sanded down to the practical. They are not glamorous and they are rarely covered, but they shape what eventually lands on the Council dais. I would love to see more residents in these rooms.

👉 View the City Calendar for all upcoming meetings

🔹 Looking ahead to next Monday, May 11: The next Regular City Council Meeting is Monday, May 11 at 5:30 PM at Malibu City Hall. I will share more on the agenda once it is posted, but mark the date.

💼 Small Business & Economic Development

🔹 The Council voted to extend temporary permit relief for local businesses through May 2027: At the April 27 meeting, the Council approved updates to Malibu's Temporary Use Permit and Sign Permit rules to keep the streamlined options that were put in place after the Palisades Fire in effect for another year. Since those emergency relaxations took effect, the City has approved nearly 40 smaller events, six TUP Express permits for mid-size events, 13 standard TUPs, and one Temporary Sign Permit, all without a single code enforcement complaint. The updates also add a few practical adjustments: up to four extra days for event setup and teardown beyond the current 14-day limit, seasonal event permits expanded from 30 to 40 consecutive days to better cover holiday windows like pumpkin lots and Christmas tree sales, and clearer language so multiple unrelated events do not get bundled into one permit.

→ 🎯 My take: This is exactly the kind of policy I want to see this Council keep doing. Our businesses have been through wildfire-related road closures, the extended PCH closure, and ongoing repair traffic that still costs them customers every day. Streamlined permits and easier signage will not fix all of that, but they remove friction at the moments that matter most: a sidewalk sale that pulls people into a center, a fundraiser that fills a parking lot, a holiday lot that brings families back into a corridor. Local shopping centers, business owners, and nonprofits have all weighed in supporting this. I am proud the program ran with zero complaints, and I am glad we extended it.

👉 Read the full Temporary Use Permit & Sign Permit update

🔹 A standing reminder to spend it here: Recovery in Malibu is going to keep happening one storefront at a time. If you have the budget this week for a long lunch out, a piece for the house, a Pilates class, or a coffee with a friend, please choose a Malibu small business. Every dollar spent locally is a vote of confidence in a town that has earned it. A handful of the spots in our local centers worth standing behind right now: _layaofficial, Shaun DeWet, 27 Miles Malibu, Lilies, La Plage, and Salt Salon, where I get my hair done. Please support them.

👉 See the original Instagram post (Instagram)

🛡️ Safety, Preparedness & What's Ahead

🔹 Free Fire Extinguisher Trainings at City Hall, Thursday May 14: The City is offering two free, hands-on community fire extinguisher trainings on Thursday, May 14, with sessions at 4:30 to 5:30 PM and 6:00 to 7:00 PM at City Hall. Each one-hour session is taught by the City's Fire Safety Liaisons and covers the mechanics of how an extinguisher actually works, when to use one, the safety considerations involved, and a live hands-on exercise outside under safety supervision. Knowing how to confidently and safely use a fire extinguisher can save your home, your business, and lives. Sign up to attend either session.

→ 🎯 My take: This is one of those small civic offerings that quietly does enormous work. An hour of training, free of charge, that genuinely changes what you can do in a critical first minute. If you live or work in Malibu, please put one of these sessions on your calendar.

👉 Sign up for Fire Extinguisher Training

🔹 2nd Annual Fire Safe Festival, Saturday May 16: The Santa Monica Mountains Fire Safe Council hosts its second annual Fire Safe Festival on Saturday, May 16 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Wildfire Learning Center at the Malibu Forestry Unit, 942 Las Virgenes Road. The day is built to be family-friendly: a Wildfire Evacuation Board Game starting at 11 AM, a student art contest, a demonstration home and garden at the Wildfire Learning Center, free native plants, screen printing, acorn art, and the chance to talk directly with local fire-safety leaders. Parking is at Tapia Park with a shuttle to the event.

→ 💡 Why this matters here: A festival that turns wildfire preparedness into something a family wants to spend a Saturday on is doing exactly what this region needs. Every conversation that happens there is one less learning curve when conditions turn.

👉 Learn more and RSVP for the Fire Safe Festival

🔹 Horse & Large Animal Emergency Evacuation Meeting, Tuesday May 12: A reminder that the community meeting for horse and large animal owners across Topanga and Malibu is next Tuesday, May 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at Fair Hills Farms, 2735 Santa Maria Road in Topanga. The agenda is exactly what every large animal household in these hills needs: evacuation protocols, coordination with Animal Care & Control, Pierce College shelter operations, trailer and documentation readiness, and how to plug into the community coordination network. RSVP to Róisin O'Brien at 818-640-5318. The original date was pushed once already to accommodate the strong response, which tells you how much this community wants to be ready. If you have horses or large animals, please make this a priority.

🔹 Thank you to Malibu West for last week's Ready, Set, Safety event: Last Tuesday, the Malibu West neighborhood hosted a community Ready, Set, Safety event focused on emergency preparedness. The neighborhood-led app and the tools shared there are part of how a community actually gets ready, one block at a time. Grateful to the organizers and to everyone who turned out.

👉 See the Ready, Set, Safety post (Instagram)

🏘️ Housing, Rebuild & Recovery

🔹 Malibu's 2025 Housing Element Annual Progress Report: the numbers are encouraging: At the April 27 Council meeting, planning staff walked the Council through the City's annual update on housing production, wildfire recovery, and homelessness response. A few headline numbers from the report. In 2025, Malibu permitted 49 new housing units, bringing the current Housing Element cycle total to 151 units. Following the Palisades Fire, the City has now issued 716 rebuild permits across the Palisades, Franklin, Broad, and Woolsey Fires combined. In 2025 alone, that meant 190 planning approvals, 39 certificates of occupancy, and five new Accessory Dwelling Units permitted, with a preapproved ADU program in development to lower costs and shorten timelines further. The City also reported 46 homeless housing placements in 2025, with Malibu's homeless population down approximately 70% since 2016. The California Department of Housing and Community Development accepted Malibu's report and praised the thoroughness of the submission.

→ 💡 What this means: Behind those numbers are families moving back in, neighborhoods coming back online, and a homelessness response that is actually working over time. None of it happens without the emergency ordinances we adopted within 90 days of the Palisades Fire, the Coastal Commission certifying the Local Coastal Program amendments to allow qualifying like-for-like rebuilds without a Coastal Development Permit, the Malibu Rebuild Center, MalibuRebuilds.org, the AI-assisted plan check partnership, and the fee waiver program. Layered together, these are the levers that turn intent into permits.

→ 🎯 My take: This is the work I came to Council to do. Permits that move responsibly without moving carelessly. A homelessness response measured in placements, not press releases. Housing tools that respect this coast and still get families home. There is real distance to go, and I will keep saying so, but 716 rebuild permits and a 70% reduction in homelessness over a decade are the kind of numbers worth standing on as we plan what comes next.

👉 Read the full Housing Element progress report

🚦 Getting Around: PCH & Topanga Canyon Closures, May 3-10

🔹 Caltrans Palisades Fire repair work continues this week: PCH from Temescal Canyon Road to Sunset Boulevard remains under a 35 mph reduced speed limit. From Sunset Boulevard to Carbon Beach Terrace, expect possible single-lane closures and a 25 mph zone. Weekday lane closures may occur between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM for roadway, drainage, slope, retaining wall, electrical, and catchment wall repairs at Las Flores Canyon, Carbon Canyon, Big Rock Drive, Coastline Drive, Porto Marina Way, and areas near Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Topanga Canyon Boulevard from PCH to Grand View Drive remains an active work zone with retaining wall construction and a 15 mph speed limit, and that stretch of SR-27 is closed daily from midnight to 5:00 AM. Nighttime one-lane traffic control with pilot cars may run from 8:00 PM to 11:59 PM with additional utility work farther north.

→ 📊 Quick reference: Fines double in work zones. Plan extra time. Schedules can shift for weather or emergency work.

👉 Check live PCH conditions on Caltrans QuickMap

👉 View the full weekly closure schedule

🎓 Community & Education

🔹 Rodney Mullen, the "Godfather of Modern Skateboarding," in Malibu on Wednesday May 6: The City is hosting two events with Rodney Mullen, the world champion skateboarder credited with inventing many of the foundational tricks of the sport, whose work also extends into MIT's Media Lab and the Smithsonian. At 4:00 PM, he leads a Youth Skateboarding Session at Malibu Skate Park at Malibu Bluffs Park (24250 PCH at Malibu Canyon Road) with guidance and tips for young skaters. Helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and wrist guards are required. No RSVP needed for the youth session. At 7:00 PM, Mullen headlines the Malibu Library Speaker Series at City Hall. That evening event has reached full capacity and RSVPs are closed, so thank you to everyone who signed up early.

→ 🎯 My take: Programming like this is one of the quiet superpowers of a small city. We get a global figure into the skate park to spend time with our kids on a Wednesday afternoon. That is the kind of memory that sticks for a generation of Malibu skaters, and it tells our young people that the world they are dreaming about is closer than they think.

👉 Read about both Rodney Mullen events

🔹 Malibu Monarch Project Lecture Series, Wednesday May 13: Dr. Anna Jacobsen returns with another Malibu Monarch Project lecture from 6:30 to 7:30 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room at City Hall. If you missed her chaparral resilience talk during Earth Month, this is a chance to plug back into one of the most thoughtful voices on Malibu's natural systems.

🔹 Summer Program Registration opens Monday May 11 at 8:00 AM: Set an alarm. Registration for the City's summer recreation programs goes live first thing next Monday, and the popular sessions tend to fill quickly.

👉 Browse Malibu Recreation programs

📅 Dates to Know

🔹 Monday, May 4, 6:30 PM: Regular Planning Commission Meeting, Malibu City Hall (tonight)

🔹 Wednesday, May 6, 4:00 PM: Rodney Mullen Youth Skateboarding Session, Malibu Skate Park at Malibu Bluffs Park

🔹 Wednesday, May 6, 5:00 to 7:00 PM: Public Safety Commission Regular Meeting, Malibu City Hall Multi-Purpose Room

🔹 Wednesday, May 6, 7:00 PM: Malibu Library Speaker Series with Rodney Mullen, Malibu City Hall (RSVPs closed, full capacity)

🔹 Thursday, May 7, 7:00 to 8:00 PM: Harry Barovsky Memorial Youth Commission Regular Meeting, Malibu City Hall Multi-Purpose Room

🔹 Monday, May 11, 8:00 AM: Summer Program Registration opens

🔹 Monday, May 11, 5:30 PM: Regular City Council Meeting, Malibu City Hall

🔹 Tuesday, May 12, 6:30 to 8:30 PM: Horse & Large Animal Emergency Evacuation Meeting, Fair Hills Farms, 2735 Santa Maria Road, Topanga

🔹 Wednesday, May 13, 6:30 to 7:30 PM: Malibu Monarch Project Lecture Series, Malibu City Hall Multi-Purpose Room

🔹 Thursday, May 14, 4:30 to 5:30 PM and 6:00 to 7:00 PM: Free Community Fire Extinguisher Trainings, Malibu City Hall

🔹 Saturday, May 16, 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM: 2nd Annual Fire Safe Festival, Wildfire Learning Center at the Malibu Forestry Unit, 942 Las Virgenes Road

🔹 Saturday, May 16, 12:00 to 3:00 PM: Poetry Summit "Vibrant Cycles," Malibu City Hall

🔹 Sunday, May 17, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM: Legacy Park Art Walk with the Malibu Art Association, Legacy Park

🔹 Monday, May 18, 6:30 PM: Regular Planning Commission Meeting, Malibu City Hall

🔹 Tuesday, May 19, 6:30 to 8:30 PM: Parks and Recreation Commission Regular Meeting, Malibu City Hall Multi-Purpose Room

🐝 One Last Thought

Tonight a Planning Commission. Wednesday, our Public Safety Commission. Thursday, our Youth Commission. None of those rooms make headlines on a normal week. All three of them are where the future of this city actually gets shaped, line by line and minute by minute, by neighbors who agreed to serve and the residents who choose to show up.

The April 27 Council meeting is a reminder of what those quieter rooms add up to. Hundreds of rebuild permits, dozens of housing units, a homelessness response that is moving in the right direction over time, and a permit framework that meets our small businesses where they actually are. None of that landed in a single news cycle. All of it was built over months by people choosing to be in the room.

So whatever this newsletter sparks tonight, an idea, a question, a concern, please reply. Better yet, pick a meeting on the list above and put it on your calendar. May the 4th be with you, and the Council Chambers, the commissions, and the conversations, too.

Thank you for the part you play in this place.

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