Legal settlement gives league right to stay at Bluffs Park, say officials. State disagrees.
By Jeff Bertolucci/Special to The Malibu Times
A 20-year-old court settlement may be Malibu Little League’s “ace in the hole” in its battle to retain its ball fields at Bluffs Park, league officials say.
The California Department of Parks and Recreation, which leases the fields to the city and wants the land back for park and visitor-serving facilities, maintains the ball fields are temporary.
However, the answer as to whether the fields are temporary or permanent is not clear, and the state has put aside the controversial issue for now.
The 1982 settlement agreement between the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the Malibu Little League gives the league permanent possession of the portion of Bluffs Park it has occupied for two decades, according to legal interpretations filed 20 years ago in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Attorney Conrad Kohrs, a longtime Malibu resident whose 10-year-old son plays Little League ball at Bluffs Park, brought the settlement agreement to the attention of The Malibu Times in a four-page letter to the editor.
Kohrs, incensed by the California Coastal Commission’s draft Local Coastal Plan (LCP) that would remove the ball fields from Bluffs Park, researched the history of the site and uncovered the 1982 agreement.
“I was concerned that the present day board of directors of Malibu Little League might not be privy to this information,” Kohrs said.
But League officials are well aware of the agreement and say it will help them in their battle to remain at the park.
“We have this legal settlement that is sort of an ace in the hole-it cannot be ignored,” said Malibu Little
League President Jack Evans.
The 1982 legal settlement came about when the state Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) sought a permit from the Coastal Commission to evict the Little League from its ball fields at the Malibu Lagoon, which the DPR wanted to convert to native wetlands.
Following a flurry of lawsuits, a settlement agreement filed in August 1982 in Los Angeles Superior Court granted the Little League a permanent home at Bluffs Park, according to Malibu Little League attorney Paul Shoop.
“We can’t be removed from the Bluffs unless someone takes us back to court,” Evans said.
State officials disagree.
The Bluffs site was offered as a temporary site until the Little League could locate permanent ball fields in the area, according to Steve Treanor, Southern Division Chief of the California Department of Parks and Rec.
“The Bluffs area was purchased by our department with a very specific purpose of having a vista point in a central location,” Treanor said. “We allowed the ball fields, but there were restrictions on that. They had to find an alternative site.”
Treanor said his department has “repeatedly and consistently” worked with city officials to obtain state funds to move the ball fields to the adjacent Crummer Trust parcel, a relocation project that would cost approximately $2 million dollars, according to Little League officials.
“We think it’s ridiculous to spend $2 million to move the park a hundred feet,” Evans said.
As for the 1982 settlement, Treanor said it’s up to state and city attorneys to haggle over its true intent. But he resents being made the heavy in the Little League saga.
“We’ve somehow become the villain in all of this, and yet we’ve located a number of other locations in the community for the ball fields,” Treanor said.
“Interestingly enough, the community doesn’t want (ball fields) in the neighborhoods. There’s a lot of NIMBY stuff going on,” he added.
Recently the Coastal Commission has backed off on its push to remove the ball fields from the 12-acre Bluffs Park, which the commission wants to convert to native vegetation and uses better suited to tourists.
At a July public hearing in Huntington Beach, commission officials announced they had “white holed,” or deferred, a decision on Bluffs Park, thereby allowing the City of Malibu, the state DPR and the Little League to work out an agreement on their own.
As for the Crummer site, Malibu Little League officials say it may not be the best location for ball fields. It’s smaller than Bluffs Park, and would require a large outfield fence that eliminates the “home run experience,” according to Shoop.
“(Without the fence) you’ll be hitting balls onto Pacific Coast Highway, and that doesn’t make any sense,” Shoop said.
So what happens if the state gives the Little League the boot from the Bluffs?
“We would have to go back to the courts to prove our position that the park is the Little League’s permanent home,” Evans said. “We’re hoping not to do that.”