In the eternal tug-of-war between public access and private property rights, some Malibu residents just won a gain with the removal of two trails from an updated trail map — an act Sycamore Park residents hope will preserve their way of life.
At Monday’s City Council meeting, nearly 40 residents came to speak, urging council to erase the Haunted House Trail from the Trail Dedication Incentive Program (TDIP) map, in an effort to go off the grid and avoid having tourists and visitors infiltrate the small private neighborhood.
Council voted unanimously 4-0 to approve the new map, with the caveat that two controversial trails be removed. Council Member John Sibert did not attend the Monday, May 9, meeting.
“I, for one, could never support an additional trail going through private property,” Mayor Laura Rosenthal said before the vote, taking a swipe at the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), which is in charge of trail maintenance. “I could never support it, no matter who it was, but the fact that it’s MRCA — that does nothing for the trails that they do have easements over now — would make it impossible for anyone to support.”
The TDIP map, which city staff described has been in the works for over 17 years, is designed to “encourage property owners to dedicate a trail, as a condition of approval, for residential development.”
“The Trail Dedication Incentive Program provides a single development incentive to residential projects that voluntarily include an offer of trail dedication that matches the maps,” a staff report explained. These maps can also be used by hikers looking to go off the beaten path, and that’s what had droves of Sycamore Park residents up in arms.
The removal of the Haunted House Trail and the Ramirez Delaplane Trail from the map were actions suggested by city staff after numerous requests from residents.
“There were issues with the logistics on how to actually [reach] the trails,” Senior Planner Adrian Fernandez described to council. “Where people will park. How people will access these private streets.”
This issue is just the latest example of a decades-long struggle between visitors and residents in Malibu, each of whom feel entitled to a piece of paradise. Malibu has long had a reputation — sometimes discussed among Coastal Commissioners or in columns in the LA Times — of NIMBY-ism: keeping visitors away from prime beach spots by painting curbs red, putting up illegal “No Parking” signs and using other tactics to dissuade visitors. Residents say this is not a fair assessment.
“The people of Malibu are welcoming people. We enjoy this place, but we enjoy our privacy,” Sycamore Park resident and former Malibu Mayor Ken Kearsley said. “You enjoy privacy in your homes. You have that right.”
Elizabeth Stevens, another Sycamore Park resident, described what most people were feeling.
“Sycamore Park is a private community. It’s been deeded private. It’s mapped private,” Stevens said, later adding, “I understand these incentive programs for these dedications, but they’re offering dedications to trails that don’t exist. You’re incentivizing people to dedicate something that doesn’t even exist.”
Visitors also have a history of wreaking havoc while hiking.
“The oak trees — [visitors] carve them. There’s graffiti on the oak trees. They paint the oak trees. They do all kinds of things. Can you imagine carving up an oak tree?” Resident Dale Sheaver said. “They need ranger presence.
“[The MRCA] can’t maintain what they have now. How are they going to be able to maintain this new area they want opened at the end of Via Escondido? They can’t do it.”
Rosenthal agreed.
“I feel — and obviously everyone in this room feels — that if MRCA were better stewards of what they had … And taken better care of the environment there, this would have been a different discussion, maybe,” Rosenthal said.
Council Member Skylar Peak said the increasing demands for easements, both on beaches and in the mountains, are “extortion.”
“The residents here are environmental stewards, and they protect their property just as anyone else would. And to go in and try to violate that really bothers me personally, and [as] someone who writes public policy,” Peak said. “I’ve seen it go on, with what I call a bit of extortion of different easements that have gone on throughout this city, whether it’s on the beach or in the mountains, and it’s got to stop.
“So in light of that, I hope that whatever we can pass as a council makes a very concrete removal of the said ‘trails’ that I don’t believe are trails.”
The decision still must be ratified by the California Coastal Commission.
Increased graffiti and vandalism of the area in and around the Corral Canyon Cave, nicknamed the “Jim Morrison Cave,” became cause for its permanent closure earlier this month.