Conservation officials are negotiating with owners of the Trancas Country Market shopping center over a land donation of the nearly eight-acre Trancas Creek area next door, which they hope to restore into a self-sustaining lagoon, among other features.
As part of a 2010 settlement with local resident Hans Laetz, shopping center owner Zuma Beach, LLC agreed to substantially downsize the proposed expansion of the center and dedicate 7.6 acres of adjacent land to the east. The property, which includes the mostly dry Trancas Creek, borders Pacific Coast Highway to the south, the shopping center to the west and would be marked for permanent open space, according to the settlement agreement.
Representatives for both the shopping center and the National Park Service (NPS), which hopes to take over the property, both say that negotiations continue to remain ongoing and there is no imminent sign of resolution.
However, Rosie Dagit, senior conservation biologist for the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, sees much potential in the nearly eight-acre property.
The agency plans to “restore a self-sustaining lagoon, increase fish passage upstream through the L.A. County flood control culvert, connect trails from the beach to the mountains [and] address the needs for re-vegetation and invasive species removal,” Dagit said.
Currently Trancas Creek—site of the proposed lagoon restoration—sits dry for most of the year aside from isolated pools. It runs in the winter when there is rain. Determining how the site would be transformed into a lagoon, is unclear, but Dagit’s agency has procured roughly $140,000 in grant money for an initial scientific study for the area. The money, Dagit said, will be put toward “hydrologic and hydraulic analysis, fish passage analysis, soils characterization, a hazardous materials survey and potential recreational elements,” among other items.
In addition to a proposed lagoon, the agency hopes to identify ways to facilitate fish passage through a culvert that covers Trancas Creek through much of the Malibu West residential neighborhood, and is operated by LA County. The connection of existing NPS hiking and equestrian trails nearby to the property is also a goal.
“[The study is] technical, but also very much about providing the information to the community,” Dagit said. “It will look at integrating the lagoon into the rest of the area in terms of trails, native vegetation, how big the actual lagoon should be, etc. It’s doing the homework for the eventual lagoon plan.”
Malibu residents are familiar with lagoon restorations, after controversy surrounding California State Parks’ reshaping of the Malibu Lagoon dragged on for several years, garnering court battles and statewide attention before it finally went through in summer of 2012. But this plan is still in its infancy.
After gathering initial information from the studies, Dagit said her agency will develop preliminary designs and then invite “all the neighbors, interested groups, and agency stakeholders to provide input. This will help refine the options and identify community priorities.” They will then hold a second meeting with all stakeholders to seek further input before finalizing the plan.
A $47,000 grant Dagit’s agency received from the state Fisheries Restoration Grant Program requires them to produce a 30 percent conceptual design plan for the restoration by March 2015 in order to start the state and federal environmental review and permitting process, Dagit said.
Although Dagit has been anxious to begin the project, an initial meeting between Zuma Beach, LLC, the City of Malibu, the NPS and the contractors to discuss details has been delayed at Zuma Beach, LLC’s request.
“For the past year, Zuma Beach, LLC has been working with the NPS to figure out how to accomplish the conservation easement,” Dagit said. “There has been much back and forth on that issue.”
Clare Bronowski, the attorney representing Zuma Beach, LLC in the negotiations with NPS, wrote as part of the grant application, “We were asked to show good faith that we intended to transfer the property to public or public trust ownership. Zuma Properties has no requirement from any governmental entity to place a conservation easement on the land. We have been working with NPS voluntarily.”
Melanie Beck, outdoor recreation planner for the National Park Service, confirmed that her agency continues to be “in sensitive negotiations with the Trancas landowners regarding acquisition of either an easement or fee ownership of the area identified for land acquisition. Mainly, we’re working toward resolving title issues, with both parties supportive of the long-term lagoon restoration effort.”