"These are the glory days."  Earlier this month, Pastor Greg Hughes spoke those words and gave us a new perspective on challenging times in our lives.  Isn't it during times of struggle that we often discover how strong we are, how good God is, and how sufficient His grace is to sustain us? 

In that light, we can look upon these days as the glory days of Malibu Presbyterian Church.  True, our plans for the temporary church and the new church have not gone according to schedule, but perhaps it's because God is refining those plans.  The church staff, Building Resurrection Committee, Building & Grounds Committee, Burdge & Associates, Klein Construction, Dave Stowell, Chris Laubach, Dominy & Associates, Daly America, and many others have been hard at work to make the most out of this incredible opportunity to construct a new church building. 

Here are a few developments over the last few months:

We submitted a Pre-Application using the chosen design concept from Dominy & Associates, and the City of Malibu responded with a list of significant issues regarding the design, including the following:

• The City of Malibu did not allow our proposed parking structure to be counted as a basement.  This means that the proposed building and parking structure exceeded the City height limit of two stories for our church; instead, they viewed the design as having four levels.
• The City wanted Malibu Presbyterian Church to conduct a traffic study, which would have cost a lot of time and money.
• The City challenged our proposed setbacks (space between buildings and the road), which may have required design changes.

Due to the pushback from the City of Malibu, the increasingly challenging environment for fundraising, and the length of time required for construction, the BRC recommends that we no longer pursue the original Dominy & Associates design.  Instead, we have requested that Dominy & Associates work on developing a like-for-like design.  This means that we can build a new church with a new design, but it can only be up to 10% larger than the footprint of the original church building.  We can address many of the functional problems that were inherent in the old design, but this means that we must reduce our proposed enhanced programming to fit within these new size constraints.

Our next steps:

• Review the program and new conceptual design for a like-for-like structure. 
• Obtain cost estimates.
• Prepare a new Pre-Application for submission to the City of Malibu.

Please feel free to speak with any of the BRC committee members if you have any questions regarding the latest updates.  While we have encountered many obstacles that have caused us to adjust our plans, we ask you to join us in prayer as we seek to discern God's will.  Please pray for wisdom for all those who are working on behalf of Malibu Presbyterian Church to move forward with the temporary church and the new church design.  Let's also take time to remember God's goodness, faithfulness, and provision during these glory days of our church.

"Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain."  Psalm 127:1