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Haylynn Conrad Newsletter — October 9, 2026
🌊 The Malibu Current with Councilmember Haylynn Conrad
📅 October 9, 2026
Happy Friday, Malibu,
Somewhere out there is a youth soccer team that does not know it yet, but one of these seasons it will board a bus, ride up PCH, and play a true away game in Malibu. On Monday, September 28, your Council voted 4 to 1 to move forward with two regulation-size soccer fields at the Ioki property, and I have been carrying that vote around all week like a kid with a new ball. When I ran for Council, I said soccer fields would be a priority. Saying it was the easy part. Getting here took years of parents, coaches, and volunteers who refused to let it drop.
There is plenty more in this issue: a coastal flood advisory that runs through 11 PM tonight, congratulations for our newest CERT graduates, a creek workshop worth your Thursday, and a Council meeting Monday. Here is the rundown.
⚽ Youth Sports: The Fields Are Finally Coming
🔹 A 4 to 1 vote years in the making: On September 28, the Council approved moving forward with two regulation-size soccer fields at the Ioki property, the 9.65-acre City-owned lot off Stuart Ranch Road and Civic Center Way that you may know as home of the annual Chili Cook-Off. This one means a great deal to me. For years, our families have driven over the hill to practice and play because we did not have the space to host. Our kids deserve room to run a full field, build stamina, and learn to play together, and when the final whistle blows, those families should be celebrating at a table right here in town.
→ 🙏 Credit where it belongs: This happened because parents, volunteers, and coaches kept pushing, including some remarkably persuasive young athletes who stepped up to the podium and told the Council exactly what it is like to practice on the back of a baseball outfield. Thank you to everyone who showed up, spoke up, and gave up weekends to keep youth sports going, and to our staff and my colleagues for taking this step together.
→ 💡 What this means: The fields move forward while the conversation about the rest of the Community Lands continues. Concepts reviewed this year include a pool, a community center and lap pool at the Heathercliff lot, and parking at the Triangle property, and none of those questions are settled. Funding the full vision will take time and honesty about tradeoffs. There is still work ahead, and I will keep pushing until the day we tell another team: this time, come play in Malibu.
👉 See the 2026 conceptual designs
🌧️ Preparedness: An Advisory Tonight, a Winter to Get Ready For
🔹 Respect the water through tonight: A coastal flood advisory is in effect until 11 PM tonight, Friday, October 9, along the Malibu coast, with minor to locally moderate coastal flooding, elevated surf, and dangerous rip currents expected. With the shoreline from Westward Beach Road into Point Dume State Beach already carved up and littered with exposed pilings and steel, please give damaged areas a wide berth and check with lifeguards before going in.
🔹 El Niño preparation is now moving at every level: On Wednesday, the City formally urged residents to prepare for what forecasters say could become a historic El Niño, with better than 90 percent odds of a very strong event and some models calling it potentially the largest in roughly 150 years of records. Our citywide local emergency, declared September 28, now sits alongside the state's own El Niño emergency proclamation, which mobilizes state resources ahead of the storms. The declaration speeds up City purchasing, permitting, and creek clearing, but it does not reach onto private property. If your home sits near a slope, a creek, or the sand, this dry stretch of October is a gift: clear gutters and drains, walk your evacuation plan, and along the coast, talk to a qualified engineer.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: The Council must review this emergency at least every 60 days, so you will keep getting specifics from me until the rains have come and gone. Preparation we do in October is worth ten times what we scramble to do in January.
🔹 Congratulations, CERT class of 2026: The free training course wrapped up with final sessions Tuesday, October 6, and Thursday, October 8, at the Malibu Library. To every graduate: thank you. Each one of you makes this town a little harder to catch off guard, and heading into this particular winter, that is no small thing. Future courses will be announced, and I hope more of you grab a seat.
👉 Read the City's emergency declaration announcement
🛍️ Economic Development: Sunday Is for the Market
🔹 Farmers Market this Sunday, October 11, 10 AM to 3 PM: Same beloved spot, the Malibu Library parking lot on Civic Center Way, now stacked with October harvest. The advisory lifts tonight, which means the weekend opens up beautifully. Bring a neighbor who has not been back since the market returned home this summer.
🔹 The long game on the pier: The pier's full rehabilitation is projected to run about 18 months, which means supporting our pier businesses is a marathon, not a weekend gesture. Malibu Farm Pier Cafe remains closed during construction, and the Ranch at the Pier shop is operating from the Malibu Cabana near the pier entrance. If you can make one pier-adjacent stop part of your regular routine, you are doing real economic development.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Between the pier work and fiber crews on Malibu Canyon Road, Webb Way, Stuart Ranch Road, and Civic Center Way through December, our businesses are carrying another construction season. Every local dollar we spend is a vote for the Malibu we want standing on the other side of it.
👉 Browse City business resources
📚 Education & Youth: Close Out Fire Prevention Week Strong
🔹 Fire Prevention Week ends tomorrow, Saturday, October 10: This year's national focus is safe charging for the lithium-ion batteries in our phones, scooters, and e-bikes. The 15-minute family version is simple, and I would love for every Malibu household to do it this weekend: walk your evacuation routes together, check where devices charge overnight so nothing sits on bedding or blocks an exit, and make sure every kid in the house can recite the family plan without prompting.
🔹 Mark October 21 for the littlest learners: Nature Walk and Storytime returns to Legacy Park on Wednesday, October 21, at 10:30 AM for children ages 5 and under, pairing stories with wildlife spotting among the native plants.
→ 🎯 My take: A soccer vote, a fire drill at the dinner table, and storytime in a native garden may not look like one policy area, but they are. We are raising the people who will take care of this place next.
🌊 Environment: The Creek Gets Its Turn
🔹 Thursday, October 15, is the night for Malibu Creek: The state-led Malibu Creek Ecological Restoration Project holds a community workshop at 6:30 PM at the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District on Las Virgenes Road, just north of Mulholland. On the table: creek debris removal and the long-term plan for Rindge Dam. This is the same creek whose flood risk pushed your Council to declare a citywide emergency, and its long-term health is flood safety, steelhead habitat, and cleaner water at Surfrider all at once. When the creek is healthy, it is an asset. When it is clogged, it is a threat. I want us planning for the century, not just for this storm season, and I hope you will bring your questions to that room.
🔹 Get natives in the ground before the rains: The Native Plant Giveaway comes to Legacy Park on Sunday, November 8, at 9:30 AM. Native roots are the quiet infrastructure holding our slopes together, and free plants ahead of an El Niño winter is about as practical as gardening gets.
👉 Explore environmental programs
🗳️ City Hall: Back at the Dais Monday
🔹 Council meets Monday, October 12, at 5:30 PM: City Hall, hybrid as always. It is our first regular meeting since the emergency declaration and the Ioki vote, and the agenda posts at the Agenda Center. If something in this issue moved you, agree or disagree, Monday is your microphone. Public comment is not a formality. It is how the soccer fields happened.
👉 Browse agendas at the Agenda Center
🏛️ Get Involved: Proof That Showing Up Works
🔹 Two commissions meet in the next two weeks: The Planning Commission convenes Monday, October 19, at 6:30 PM in the City Hall Council Chambers, and the Parks and Recreation Commission follows on Tuesday, October 20, at 6:30 PM at City Hall, and with new fields on the horizon, that second one should be especially interesting. The Public Safety Commission held its October meeting this past Wednesday and returns Wednesday, November 4, at 5 PM. The Arts Commission meets Tuesday, October 27, at 9:30 AM, the Public Works Commission on Wednesday, October 28, at 3:30 PM, and the Harry Barovsky Memorial Youth Commission posts its next agenda at the Agenda Center. Every meeting welcomes public comment. If the Ioki story taught us anything, it is that the people who keep showing up in those rooms eventually win the argument, and the application to serve is open year-round.
👉 Browse upcoming commission meetings and agendas
👉 Apply to serve on a commission or committee
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Tonight, Friday, October 9: Coastal flood advisory in effect until 11 PM, with elevated surf and dangerous rip currents along the Malibu coast.
🔹 Saturday, October 10: Fire Prevention Week (October 4 through 10) wraps up. A perfect excuse for the family evacuation-and-charging check.
🔹 Sunday, October 11, 10 AM to 3 PM: Malibu Farmers Market, Malibu Library parking lot, Civic Center Way.
🔹 Monday, October 12, 5:30 PM: Regular City Council Meeting, City Hall (hybrid), agenda at the Agenda Center.
🔹 Thursday, October 15, 6:30 PM: Community workshop on the state-led Malibu Creek Ecological Restoration Project, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, Las Virgenes Road just north of Mulholland.
🔹 Monday, October 19, 6:30 PM: Planning Commission Regular Meeting, City Hall Council Chambers.
🔹 Tuesday, October 20, 6:30 PM: Parks and Recreation Commission Regular Meeting, City Hall.
🔹 Wednesday, October 21, 10:30 AM: Nature Walk and Storytime, Legacy Park, ages 5 and under.
🔹 Looking further out: The Arts Commission meets Tuesday, October 27, at 9:30 AM, and the Public Works Commission on Wednesday, October 28, at 3:30 PM, both at City Hall. The Public Safety Commission next meets Wednesday, November 4, at 5 PM, and the Youth Commission posts its next agenda at the Agenda Center. The Native Plant Giveaway lands at Legacy Park on Sunday, November 8, at 9:30 AM.
🔹 Ongoing: Sea Level Drive remains closed under an evacuation order while repairs continue. Severe erosion hazards persist from Westward Beach Road into Point Dume State Beach, with Westward Beach Road and the Point Dume lot still closed and the beach reachable on foot from the Zuma side. PCH work zones continue with reduced speeds, overnight closures near Tuna and Ratner beaches, and doubled fines. The speed cameras remain in testing mode with the warning period set for November, but the right speed does not wait for an envelope. Fiber construction continues on Malibu Canyon Road, Webb Way, Stuart Ranch Road, and Civic Center Way through December.
👉 Browse the full Malibu city calendar
🐝 One Last Thought
Nobody gets a soccer field in a week. The Ioki vote took years of Saturdays at the podium, the pier rehab will take 18 months of patience, and the winter ahead will be won or lost by what we each do during quiet weeks like this one. The pattern is the same every time: the towns that get what they want are the ones that keep asking, keep preparing, and keep showing up long after it stops being exciting.
So pick your square on the calendar. Market Sunday, Council chambers Monday, the creek workshop Thursday, a commission seat whenever you are ready. And if something in your corner of Malibu needs a champion, tell me about it at hconrad@malibucity.org. Your note lands with me, not a machine, and it just might be the start of the next long push that pays off.
Save me a spot on the sideline, Malibu.
Haylynn Conrad
Councilmember, City of Malibu
