Local News in Brief : Cityhood Deemed Viable

The executive director of the Local Agency Formation Commission, which handles incorporation issues, presented a report to commission members Thursday stating that a proposal to turn a 21-square-mile area of Malibu into a city would be “financially viable.”

The report, which will be the subject of a public hearing May 25, said that a newly formed city would incur an operating deficit of about $2 million due to public works projects but that the deficit could be spread out over several years.

Ruth Benell, commission executive director, said the proposed city’s ability to raise additional revenues from licenses, fees and development projects appears to make cityhood for Malibu economically feasible, according to a member of the Malibu Incorporation Committee who obtained the report.

The incorporation drive for Malibu was launched in October, partly in an effort to block Los Angeles County officials from building an $86-million sewer system in the coastal community. Advocates of cityhood lost a close incorporation election in 1976.