So Peter Douglas thinks it would be a waste of public funds for the Malibu City Council to pursue amending Malibu’s LCP to ban overnight camping in parks and recreation areas within city limits, does he? I distinctly recall Mr. Douglas commenting, during the 2002 hearings on Malibu’s LCP before the Coastal Commission, that he had no sympathy for the people of Malibu who build their homes near ESHAs that burn in wildfires. Well, Mr. Douglas, some of your state park campers just set a wildfire that caused over $100 million in property damage in Malibu. Do you have any sympathy for the hundreds of human beings, citizens of Malibu and surrounding areas, who lost their homes and most of their possessions? Or are you so much in love with non-human living things that you don’t care?
As a resident of Big Rock for many years, I have seen such a cavalier attitude in the past from state officials. In the early 1980s, state and county officials covered up the Big Rock landslide which they helped create, and tried to blame the landslide on the Big Rock homeowners, saying we caused the landslide by flushing our toilets and taking too many showers and watering our lawns and plants. But the courts didn’t buy it, and we ended up getting $75 million from the state and county for being major contributing causes of the landslide.
So, Mr. Douglas, what do you have to say about the class action lawsuit which is in the works against the state you work for, which will allege that the $100 million fire which started on State Parks and Recreation property would not have happened if the state had supervised the area better, and not allowed the partying and bonfire which caused the firestorm to happen? Will you say that it is not your problem, since the Coastal Act “supports public access and visitor-serving accommodations” even if such public access and visitor-serving activities cause $100 million in property damage and lost family mementos and heartaches for local residents? Or don’t we count at all in your view, since we are not visitors, but merely hosts in our own community, here merely to serve your visitors, even those who set fires that burn our houses down?
Ted Vaill