Natural Energy

from Malibu Times Magazine • Summer 2022

editor’s letter 12 contributors 15 lovin’ bu 16 last look 82crossword 79 calendar

Harnessing Natural Energy

Creating harmony in the home with Feng Shui

BY KAMALA KIRK

Our home is where we find our peace. Whether it is a quiet sanctuary or overflowing with activities, it is often where we can be our happiest. Feng shui, a traditional Chinese concept, aims to ensure people live in harmony in their homes. Literally meaning “wind and water,” feng shui is based on the foundation that energy, known as qi (also spelled chi), surrounds us all. Interior designer Katherine Carter offered tips on the art of arranging a space and its various elements to allow for the maximum flow of positive chi. Feng shui incorporates all five elements—water, earth, fire, metal, and wood—in order to maintain balance in a home.

Elements

Water creates prosperity and abundance in your life. You can bring in the element by adding a water feature, touches of blues, curved items and soothing images of water. The earth element creates nourishment, stability and protection. Cream and brown tones lend itself to bring the idea of the earth into the home. Crystals and stones are another great way to add an earthy touch. Fire adds passion, inspiration and expression. You can literally bring fire into your space with candles of all different shapes, sizes and textures. Or, add a fire pit outdoors. In addition, the color red inspires passionate energy so using the color sparingly can add sparks of this element. Careful though—adding too much may be too intense and lead to burnout. Adding metal signifies precision, simplicity and clarity. Metallic furniture accents with gold and silver tones are a great way to bring in the element. This can be done with light fixtures, furniture legs, cushions, throws and artwork. Wood elements equate to vitality, growth and kindness. Furniture and accessories with wood tones make great accent pieces while bringing this element into the home. In addition, decorating with living plants invites wood energy. With the energy of growth from greenery comes compassion, kindness and flexibility. The color green is said to help with anxiety and depression as well. On that same note, remove dead or dying plants; they have lost their chi and can drain a home’s vitality. Which of course means cacti should be avoided—sharp spines represent conflict and negative energy. Every color in the wheel equates to a different emotion. And this also applies to feng shui. While color alone can’t activate an element, it’s a compatible design choice in feng shui rooms. It can either enhance an overall room design or totally destroy it. While there is no feng shui rule for wall color, it is important to note how the color makes you feel and how it works with your existing decor and color scheme. If it enhances and enlivens your room, then it’s a good choice. Each color has a different energy and meaning: gray creates a neutral and calming effect; brown is grounding and stable; a soft yellow or pale orange symbolizes abundance and prosperity; pale green indicates knowledge and growth; blue provides clarity and inspiration; and white helps with mental focus.

Once you’ve determined the direction your home is facing, then you can correctly identify the direction of each room. Feng shui practitioners use a special compass known as a luo pan to determine this, but the compass on your phone will work as well. Furniture placement helps create good energy flow throughout a space. Starting at the front door, which can be a beacon for opportunities to come into your life, a functioning doorbell symbolizes new opportunities. The entry area should be brightly lit and free of clutter. Clutter represents obstacles in our lives. In fact, decluttering closets on a regular basis not only sweeps out the accumulated dust in corners, but it means you can donate anything no longer needed in order to maintain a clean and open space. A little open space, even in a closet, sends the message to the universe that you have space to invite new opportunities into your life. In the living room, the sofa should be placed against a stable wall to evoke the feeling of safety. Avoid floating the sofa in the center of the room and never place a sofa in front of windows. And it should be ensured that there is a seat for every person in the home. A rug can be placed in the center of the living room to connect and ground the family. A good feng shui kitchen layout favors the back of the home in the south or southwest corner, as well as north or northeast parts. It is best to incorporate beige and yellows tones in the kitchen while limiting the presence of metal, wood and water elements (blue, black, gray and green). Regularly dispose of expired food in the refrigerator and pantry. Use of a stove every day, which is kept clean and in good repair, keeps energy active—even if it is just to boil water. For the best feng shui bedroom layout, the bed should be placed in the commanding position diagonally from the bedroom door with a solid wall behind it. A solid headboard should be securely attached to the bed. And removing any storage and clutter from underneath the bed allows the space to be completely open to air and circulation of qi. Nightstands on both sides of the bed grounds the energy; a rug underneath provides even more grounding energy, and it’s a home run with a piece of furniture at the foot of the bed. Creating the right energy in your home helps everyone who lives there to remain mentally, physically and emotionally calm. By implementing some of the important principles of feng shui into your space, you will transform the energy of your home and cultivate a sense of tranquility to enhance the quality of time you spend there and make you feel happier as a result.

Turning Family Dreams into Family Homes Planning isn’t Procrastination

by Don Schmitz Schmitz & Associates

Planning is essential for livable and attractive communities, and it is also an honorable profession that I have dedicated my life to. The government, through its police powers, exercises immense authority in regulating development; how big, what type, allowable density, right down to what landscaping you can have. The goals and objectives are laudable, seeking to improve the aesthetics of our community, protect our environment, and keep us safe from hazards.

Planning isn’t just desirable; it is essential. Accordingly, our elected officials from the local to the Federal level are entrusted with drafting laws and regulations and providing guidelines, hopefully clearly understandable, which are to be implemented by the local planning departments when a property owner makes an application to build a house or business, establish a farm, or create an equestrian center.

However, that regulatory power is not unlimited. The Supreme Court has affirmed that property rights are a Constitutionally guaranteed civil right. In the 2001 Palazzolo case, they declared that property owners start with the right to use their land unfettered, a “bundle of rights,” and while the government can take away some of those rights to achieve their greater good goals, they may not take all of them. The specter of “Takings,” where the government overly restricts a property owner, is always inherently part of the planning discussion. However, the end result is not the only concern. Unreasonable delays can also raise the specter of illegal actions by regulatory bodies, which courts are increasingly ruling on through Judicial Substantive Due Process Claims. Recognizing the importance of protecting property owners from unreasonable delays, California passed the Permit Streamlining Act (PSA) in 1977, which requires planning departments to act on complete applications within 180 days. Our elected representatives recognized the importance of good government and a responsive planning process. That is the law statewide, but unfortunately, not for Malibu. We are the only city so situated.

When the California Coastal Commission (CCC) unilaterally drafted Malibu’s Local Coastal Plan in 2002, they had the authority granted to them by the legislature under AB-988, which included a provision setting aside the 180 PSA rule in Malibu, stripping residents of that protection. Today, the average time frame for the city to process a home application is 1.5 to 2 years. When I inform professional planners from other jurisdictions of these timelines, the reaction is universally stunned disbelief. It is a statistical fact that permitting a home or business in this area is obscenely protracted compared to the rest of the country. The city of Malibu has excellent planning staff, but they are underfunded and woefully light on staffing. Recently the city council, recognizing the system has become dysfunctional, committed to expand and fund the planning department. Promising, but will it make a difference?

The Malibu development codes are some of the most complicated and restrictive in the country. Most residents want it that way, to maintain the Malibu character and charm, which is fair enough. However, some residents, and some decision makers, may have slipped into the mode of engaging in dilatory tactics, seeking to delay, postpone, and impede property owners’ aspirations. That vacant lot in the neighborhood that they look and walk across, they would like to keep it that way. Some believe that an owner’s right to build their home should be subject to a plebiscite, to ascertain if the proposal is popular, which has also been rejected by the courts. Its not new nor unique to Malibu, but some believe if the process can be long enough, expensive enough, painful enough, then applicants will give up with their dreams thwarted. The land remains vacant, and in their perception a win for the neighborhood and the environment. Sadly though, this squelches the use and enjoyment of the land by the property owner, and use the Supreme Court has defined as a fundamental civil right.

Such a mindset, and the system it creates, is both immoral and illegal. Anyone who has participated in our land use system has observed how caustic and divisive this can be to our community. Passions run high, vitriol is common, insults are often levied, and neighbors turn against each other. The town divides into camps, them and us, pro this and anti that.

It doesn’t have to be that way; it should not be that way.

We have a very tough and detailed system of codes, excellent architects and representatives designing projects, and highly sophisticated planning staff at the city. The system is supposed to work efficiently, with applications being reviewed and vetted without delays. Projects should be brought to hearing consistent with statewide norms for timing, where good projects are expeditiously approved, and bad ones quickly denied, without unnecessary delays. It is refreshing to hear universal support on the council to reform, fund, and expand the beleaguered Malibu planning department, but whether the time, effort and money will succeed remains to be seen. Having additional resources is imperative, but It will take the commitment of not only the professional City staff but our elected representatives, their appointed decision makers, and all of us, to make our system functional and fair. We can maintain our beautiful community, while allowing world class projects to proceed, without the vitriol, divisiveness, and without the unprecedented delays.