Council OKs Streisand Plan for New Building

Singer Barbra Streisand has won permission to construct a new building at her three-acre ocean-side Point Dume compound that will be used as a temporary repository for her lifelong collection of film manuscripts, music scores and personal recordings.

The City Council has voted 4 to 0 to approve the 11,300-square-foot, two-story structure. It will include a pair of basements that will house her personal materials.

Several neighbors had appealed last August’s city Planning Department approval of the project. They argued that the building would be too tall and would contribute to what they called the “mansionization” of Malibu.

But council members rejected the appeal, ruling that the structure is similar in height to other dwellings in the neighborhood. They said the project will not damage the nearby environmentally sensitive beachfront bluff.

Streisand reportedly will use the new structure to store her personal papers and other materials while they are cataloged for eventual donation to the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress.