The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy board’s decision is dependent on the City Council’s passage this Wednesday of a memorandum of understanding between the two entities. SMMC Executive Director Joe Edmiston says overnight camping at Ramirez Canyon Park could still be something it would pursue.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
During a closed-session meeting last Friday, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy board voted 4-1 to rescind its previously approved parks enhancement plan as long as the Malibu City Council votes this week to agree to a memorandum of understanding with the conservancy. The council was supposed to vote on the document, which has not been made public, last week, but the meeting was canceled due to the fire. The council is meeting this Wednesday.
Although the agreement has not been released, Hogin wrote about some of the details in a staff report for the council. The conservancy is agreeing to scrap a plan for enhancements of the parks at Ramirez, Escondido and Corral canyons that only needed California Coastal Commission approval and required no review from the city. The conservancy will instead go through the city to seek Local Coastal Program amendments to enhance parkland.
According to Hogin’s report, the conservancy will be applying to bring overnight camping to Corral Canyon and the city-owned Charmlee Park (rather than Escondido Canyon). But SMMC Executive Director Joe Edmiston said this week, “There is nothing substantive in this agreement except the trade of Escondido for Charmlee. It doesn’t say anything about Corral Canyon, Ramirez Canyon, anything else but Escondido Canyon. And it says whatever we do, we will do it through the LCP amendment process.”
Edmiston said Charmlee Park is a preferable place to Escondido Canyon for overnight camping. He said it was never previously proposed by the SMMC, because he did not think the city would offer it.
“You could have even more camping there,” Edmiston said. “There are already developed facilities there, such as restrooms. It’s a beautiful view. It is larger and there are not miles of neighbors near the park.”
Charmlee Park is deed-restricted not to allow camping. Hogin said last week that she was exploring options on how to reverse that deed restriction.
One of the most controversial elements of the SMMC’s original plan is that it allows camping at the SMMC’s Ramirez Canyon property, which it received from Barbra Streisand in 1993. The surrounding homeowners expressed concern about the fire risks that proposal presented. Hogin said last week that she believed if the conservancy got to have camping at Charmlee Park, it would no longer pursue the Ramirez Canyon option. Edmiston said this week that “I’m not sure that’s an accurate statement.”
According to Hogin’s staff report, the agreement states that “while we undergo the process that we hope will ultimately resolve the matter,” the city will not challenge the conservancy’s use of its Ramirez Canyon property for its offices and holding two special programs a week for disabled children and seniors.
Steve Amerikaner, attorney for the local homeowners, said last week that his clients will continue to challenge the conservancy’s use of the property for its offices and what he says are other illegal uses, because the property is zoned for open space. A Simi Valley judge last month refused the homeowners’ request for an injunction to remove the conservancy’s offices from the property. The judge rejected the request mostly on technical grounds that the injunction was requested in connection with another lawsuit, and the judge said that it should not have been. Amerikaner said last week that his clients would either be appealing that ruling, or trying to get a court order for eviction through a different method.
If the city and the conservancy were able to come to a resolution over this matter, it would prevent three lawsuits between the two entities from going to court. However, the conservancy is still being challenged by a group that includes Ramirez Canyon property owners and anti-tax activists, who claim the conservancy has illegally used Proposition 50 bond money to fund this project. The group’s attorney, Allison Burns, said last week that any deal between the city and the conservancy would not affect that lawsuit.