I was greatly heartened to see the participation of hundreds of citizens at last week’s special meeting of the City Council which was held to discuss the recent closure of Winter Canyon and the resulting traffic mess. It was also reassuring to see the City Council admit that they had made a big mistake and reverse their action to close the street. What is of great concern to me is that those same citizens do not seem to be aware of the traffic train wreck that is coming our way if the Malibu Bay Company Prop M proposal passes and Malibu becomes a massive tourist and shopping destination.
The environmental impact report prepared for the city projects a very optimistic “…total of 12% (traffic increase) to reflect regional growth for year 2001 to year 2015” and adds to this growth “related projects that are projected to generate 13,679 weekday daily trips.” It goes on to project that of the 12 main intersections in Malibu, “eight intersections are expected to operate at LOS (level of service) D or worse.” It should be noted that no intersections in Malibu with the exception of Topanga (F) and Malibu Canyon (C) are currently below level B. The study projects that the Webb Way/PCH and Webb Way/Civic Center Way intersections will incur “tremendous delays with continuously increasing queue lengths” and the Malibu Canyon/PCH intersection “may be long lines of waiting vehicles through several cycles.” The Kanan/PCH intersection will incur “delays that may be substantial during portions of the rush hours.” These are not the words of a wild-eyed, no-growth environmentalist but rather the projections of a traffic study that was rejected by the Planning Commission as overly optimistic and inadequate. These are not summer projections but rather what Malibu citizens will experience every day. Does anyone really believe that Z traffic will increase by less than one percent a year?
The City Council approved the Malibu Bay Company agreement with virtually no discussion of the traffic impact on the citizens of Malibu. They did not require the Malibu Bay Company to do any street improvements. As an ad run by concerned citizens stated last week, “Come on, folks. Admit it was a mistake.” If we don’t, the Winter Canyon traffic mess will be just the dead canary in the coal mine.
John Mazza