In February 2024, the City of Malibu engaged Tripepi Smith to provide a robust community outreach and engagement program to identify community priorities for five parcels of City-owned land spanning just over 61 acres. Over the course of the six-month project, the City collected two rounds of feedback on the community’s vision for the future of the lands. The findings were then presented to the City Council to help inform their decision on the next steps.
“The success of this project was rooted in the City’s commitment to the community and their vision for the future,” said Director Sydni Overly. “We recognized the importance of both extensive public participation and targeted feedback that would be helpful in Council’s decision-making process, which shaped our approach to the project. We are proud to have collaborated with the City on such a meaningful project for their entire community and are excited to see their ideas for each of the lands come to fruition!”
Tripepi Smith kicked off the project by interviewing staff, City Council and Commissions to develop a robust Outreach and Engagement Plan. The outreach and engagement program was divided into two distinct phases. Phase 1, conducted from April to June, sought broad community input on potential uses and facilities needed throughout Malibu. Phase 2 ran from August to September and used insights from Phase 1 to collect more refined feedback, focusing on 10 categories of uses that drove participants to share more specific input on what they envision for each of the lands.
Tripepi Smith provided support in all aspects of the program, including collecting and organizing community feedback, managing weekly updates to the project website, hosting community meetings and pop-up events, developing social media, press releases, flyers and mailers, producing an animated video and managing digital and print advertisements. Tripepi Smith also created an eye-catching sub-logo to highlight the importance of community input throughout the process and encourage the public to get involved.
To wrap up the outreach portion of the project, Tripepi Smith compiled a comprehensive Outreach and Engagement Report. These findings, along with technical environmental information related to each of the lands, were presented to the City Council to help inform their decision on the next steps for each of the lands.
“Partnering with Tripepi Smith allowed us to launch an inclusive and thoughtful engagement process that provided valuable insights for Council to ultimately direct staff on future developments,” said Malibu Management Analyst Cynthia Alba. “This is a big step for our community, and we are looking forward to moving this process along and keeping our residents engaged.”
The Malibu Community Lands project remains ongoing. To learn more, please visit MalibuCommunityLands.org.
About Tripepi Smith
Tripepi Smith is a California-based marketing, technology and public affairs firm that serves for-profit, nonprofit and public agencies. Its unique mix of marketing and technology prowess provides a competitive advantage to agencies seeking to leverage the internet to achieve their communication goals. The firm provides full content creation services, including: ghost writing, collateral development, photography, video production, aerial imagery, search engine optimization, email marketing campaigns and website design and execution. Tripepi Smith clients include: City of American Canyon, City of Culver City, City of Cupertino, City of Daly City, City of Duarte, City of Grover Beach, City of Santa Paula, City of Indian Wells, City of La Cañada Flintridge, City of Lake Forest, City of Livermore, City of Napa, City of Paramount, City of Tracy, CalChoice Energy Authority, California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, Santa Clara County Fire Department, Costa Mesa Sanitary District, Rowland Water District, California City Management Foundation, Renne Public Law Group, West Coast Arborists, Scripps College, Blind Children’s Learning Center and Climatec.