The Malibu City Clerk has presented the council with 1,400 verified signatures calling for limits on the amount of space chain stores can occupy in shopping centers.

The initiative would limit the amount of space chain stores can occupy to 30 percent of a shopping center’s total retail space.

At the council’s next meeting on July 14, administrators will present the results of studies about the impact of the initiative. The council will then decide how to proceed.

Several opponents of the proposed initiative spoke at Monday night’s meeting, including Malibu Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mark Persson. Persson cited the example of Malibu Yogurt, in the Conley Plaza Shopping Complex, which he said is helped by traffic from a Starbucks in the same complex.

“Business should be conducted on an even playing field,” Persson told the council. “I cannot understand or explain why we would have neighboring shopping centers where one is restricted and the other is exempted.”

No supporters of the initiative showed up to speak during the public comment period. Councilwoman Laura Rosenthal called for backers of the initiative to come to the July 14 meeting.

“I really hope that people that were involved in doing that come in two weeks,” Rosenthal said. “ So that when we do get information from our city attorney, our city manager, our city planning director, that we will have people that put the initiative together to tell us what their thoughts were and what they were thinking.”

At the July 14 meeting, the council will decide whether to adopt the proposal as an ordinance or allow the proponents to place it on the ballot as an initiative.

Check out the Business Journal’s earlier coverage.