The residents need a new plan to reconnect road closed by slide.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
After deciding their plan approved by city officials in December was too expensive, Rambla Pacifico homeowners are working on a new proposal to repair their street and make it safe for emergency vehicles. And now, they are hoping to get some financial help from the city.
Supporting the homeowners on their request is Councilmember Ken Kearsley, who proposed at Monday’s City Council meeting that the Malibu government should spend $200,000 on the project, which is estimated to cost approximately $1.5 million. The project would include connecting the upper portion of Rambla Pacifico with the lower portion through the construction of a private road, thereby providing easier access for the residents to Pacific Coast Highway. But more importantly, it would give an exit point for emergency vehicles entering the area. Also, there is an additional proposal to create a small access road to the La Costa neighborhood that would only be used by emergency vehicles.
Kearsley said he proposed on Monday to give the money, not expecting the council to approve the allocation of funds during the meeting, since the application to construct the road has not been formally submitted to the city. But rather, he wanted “the council to give a nod vote,” and the city staff would come back with a formal action item at the next meeting in late August. Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich said the issue was of tremendous importance, and wanted to figure out a way to designate the money on Monday. Meanwhile, Mayor Jeff Jennings said he still wanted more information before forming an opinion.
A 1984 slide destroyed part of the upper portion of Rambla Pacifico, and the homeowners have since been trying to figure out a way to solve the access issues created by the slide. In December, the homeowners received a coastal development permit for the reconstruction of a two- and a-half-foot portion of the road that would connect to Las Flores Canyon Road. But that was determined to cost approximately $2.5 million, and the homeowners decided it was too expensive. The new proposal must receive a coastal permit as well. David Kagon, a Rambla Pacifico homeowner, said this week in an interview that he expects the project will go before the Planning Commission for a permit soon.
Jennings said during the meeting that he would like to support the city giving money to a project for emergency access. But he was hesitant to give its full blessing until he knew more.
“My primary concern is that we don’t know what in the world we are allocating money to, and [if] it is lawful,” Jennings said. “I am concerned about the nature of the road and what is proposed. Is this going to be gated? Are there going to be keys? And if so, what do we say to everybody else in every other part of town about their private road?”
Kagon said the condition of Rambla Pacifico is important to the city as a whole because emergency officials’ inability to access the road during the 1993 fire was the reason it spread to other parts of Malibu. He showed a signed declaration by then Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Anthony Shafer as proof.
“When the fire came through the La Costa area there were relatively few structures engaged,” Shafer wrote. “However, because Rambla Pacifico Road was closed above us, many of those houses on fire rained embers down onto the La Costa area. It was this fire rain that caused most houses in [La Costa] to catch fire [and] eventually burn down. With access to Rambla Pacifico Road, those fires could have been extinguished and the subsequent raining of embers prevented.”
The council will discuss the issue further at its next meeting on Aug. 27.
Colony project appeal rejected
Also on Monday, the council voted 3-1 to reject an appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval for the construction of a 5,200-square-foot Malibu Colony home that several environmentalists said was too close to the Malibu Lagoon, a protected environmentally sensitive habitat area, or ESHA, and that it would harm nearby trees for various reasons.
Although the approval had been appealed by Steven Littlejohn, the son of a man who lives adjacent to the property at the 23000 block of Malibu Colony Road, the night’s liveliest testimony against the project came from longtime City Council critics Marcia Hanscom, Robert Roy van de Hoek and attorney Frank Angel, who was hired to represent the appellant.
Angel lashed out about the staff report written by planner Evan Langan and approved by Planning Manager C.J. Amstrup because it said the project was not within the 100-foot threshold of an ESHA. Angel said he believed the report showed “something is terribly rotten in the city planning department.”
Angel also said he was angry that a 10-page letter he had submitted to the city about the project was not included in the staff report. Later in the meeting, the council recessed for 15 minutes to give the staff a chance to make photocopies of the Angel letter so the council members could read it before voting. But after the break, Amstrup announced that, although the letter had been submitted in June, he did not know where it was. However, he said Angel had seen the staff report since it was released last week, and had “ample opportunity” to notify the city his letter was missing.
A majority of the council members said they were not persuaded by the arguments of the opponents, saying the project was far enough from any ESHA. They also disputed the claims that it would harm the nearby trees as the opponents had alleged.
The project can be appealed to the California Coastal Commission.