The Malibu City Council unanimously approved a comprehensive three-year strategic plan Monday night, establishing a roadmap for the city's recovery following devastating wildfires that destroyed $1.6 billion in property.
The 2025-2028 Strategic Plan outlines seven major goals and 27 distinct projects designed to guide the city through what officials described as a critical period of transition after fires in December and January destroyed thousands of structures.
"The strategic plan is a really critical document for the organization to follow, because it provides a clear, shared roadmap of the city's priorities, aligning the council goals with staff actions and resources," said Richard Rojas, deputy city manager, who presented the plan to the council.
The plan emerged from a structured development process that included an executive team workshop, a June 2025 council workshop to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and extensive drafting and refinement by city staff.
Seven Strategic Priorities
The approved plan establishes six strategic priorities: economic recovery, infrastructure resilience, public safety improvements, modernization and digital transformation, workplace culture and talent development, and community services and facilities expansion.
The highest-profile goal focuses on supporting community rebuilding and long-term recovery. Projects under this objective include developing a long-term recovery plan aligned with federal and state partners, implementing focused code amendments to streamline rebuilding, and providing fire rebuild waivers to reduce the financial burden on affected residents.
"We wanted to make sure we were addressing as part of the strategic plan documents the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that we were observing at that time," Rojas said.
Economic recovery represents another critical priority, with the city focusing on restoring lost sales tax, hotel occupancy tax and transaction tax revenue to pre-disaster levels. The plan includes development of an economic recovery plan with consulting firm Sunstone Cities, business community engagement and potential additional rounds of recovery grants.
"We're really focused on recovering what was lost, not surpassing it, not growing beyond what the established limits are, but recovering what we lost," Rojas told the council.
Infrastructure and Public Safety
Infrastructure resilience projects include upgrading the coastal sewer system, improving water tanks and fire flow capacity, developing coastal resiliency infrastructure, exploring microgrid energy systems, and creating a comprehensive telecommunications plan to enhance wireless communication reliability.
Public safety improvements focus on three objectives: reducing injuries and fatal collisions on Pacific Coast Highway, increasing wildfire resiliency through updated community wildfire protection plans and regional fuel reduction strategies, and reducing homeless encampments through expanded outreach and enforcement.
The plan also emphasizes modernizing city operations through digital transformation, including online permitting systems, enterprise resource management upgrades, and interdepartmental project management platforms.
Community Support and Concerns
Council members praised the plan's comprehensive approach while emphasizing the need for disciplined implementation.
"Strategic plan, having a roadmap, what you want get done and how to do it is extremely important," said Councilmember Steve Uhring. "You know, if you don't know where you're going, any path will take you there. This gives us a chance to really accomplish the things that are important for the city."
Councilmember Doug Stewart noted the importance of staying focused. "Every strategic plan has three steps: cash, resources and focus," he said. "Nobody's going to get everything they want in this pass, but you got to take what you can eat."
The council approved a friendly amendment directing staff to clarify in the plan's preamble that the listed priorities are not hierarchical and are of equal importance.
Public commenters, including representatives for resident Kevin Keegan, suggested additional items such as new revenue sources, neighborhood beautification projects, public health gap analysis and enhanced technology considerations including artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
Interim City Manager Candace Bond emphasized the plan's flexibility while stressing the need for discipline in implementation. "This is not a Bible, this is not in stone, but it provides a roadmap," Bond said. "We really are focused on rebuilding and our recovery efforts. That's really important to get our city back on track."
The city plans to develop an online dashboard and reporting tool to provide transparency and track progress on goals and objectives, with quarterly reports to the council.
The strategic plan builds on Malibu's first-ever strategic workplan approved in September 2023.