Panel OKs Malibu Mall; Project Seen as Trend-Setter

The California Coastal Commission has approved a proposed 103,000-square-foot Malibu shopping center--large by local standards--that could set the architectural tone for the Civic Center area near Pepperdine University.

Roy Crummer, whose family has owned the Malibu Colony Center site at Webb Way and Pacific Coast Highway for 30 years, said he expects to build an “early California” structure in the style of the nearby Adamson Museum. The center will have mission-tile roofs, carved stone columns from Guadalajara and a bell tower, he said.

The Crummers have extensive holdings in the largely undeveloped 92-acre Civic Center area.

As more construction occurs, “I would expect the area will probably start developing a different character than it has now,” Crummer said. He envisions other buildings in the early California style.

The Colony Market, drug store and post office now on the center site “are kind of falling down,” Crummer said.

He plans to demolish most of the structures there, renovate others and expand the center to include other shops and businesses. He hopes to begin work in the spring and open the new center in April, 1987.

Crummer said he had no cost estimates for the project.

But, after Wednesday’s meeting, he now knows he will need at least $115,000 to pay a fee required for all new commercial development under the Malibu land-use program approved by the commission last month.

The fee--$1.50 for each square foot built beyond the amount of existing construction--goes to county maintenance of public accessways to beaches.