The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and the lawyers for Ramirez Canyon area homeowners will meet to try to come up with a satisfactory solution for both parties.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
After a lengthy discussion behind closed doors during a joint-meeting of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, the boards of the related organizations decided to delay the process for developing the MRCA’s Ramirez Canyon Park property.
The decision came after attorney Steve Amerikaner, who represents a group of Ramirez Canyon homeowners, told the officials at the meeting that the proposal violated the Malibu Local Coastal Program.
Also, Amerikaner said since the meeting was taking place in Burbank, rather than Malibu, residents were not given a fair chance to comment on the proposal. He added that notice for the meeting was not widely distributed, limiting the chance for Malibu residents to be able to find out about the hearing.
In addition, Amerikaner said the proposal was vague on how many large public gatherings would be allowed to take place on the MRCA property. And large public gatherings on the property that is designated for open space, he said, violated the Malibu LCP. To allow the MRCA to use the property in violation of the Malibu LCP, Amerikaner said, would mean the city of Malibu would have no authority over a property within its own city limits.
“This proposal creates a jurisdiction within a jurisdiction,” Amerikaner said. “To our knowledge, this is unprecedented in California. And we think it raises significant issues for local governments in the state.”
After Amerikaner’s comments, the meeting went into closed session, a time when legal issues are discussed away from the public. Following the closed session, the boards voted for lawyers from all the entities to meet next month in a mediation and come up with a solution that would satisfy everybody.
“We’re glad to resume discussions and we’ll see where they’ll go,” Amerikaner said in an interview on Tuesday.
Joe Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said on Tuesday, “There isn’t much of Mr. Amerikaner’s statements [at Monday’s meeting] that I agreed with. But in the spirit of not trying to inflame the situation, I am not going to respond to what he said.”
The Ramirez Canyon Park property was donated to the MRCA in 1993 by Barbra Streisand. Both the city and the local homeowners group, the Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund, were troubled by what they said was the MRCA’s use of the property for various parties and other large gatherings as a money-making method because of the noise and traffic that it created. A California Coastal Commission-approved coastal development permit for the property was set aside by a court In 2004 after the Ramirez Canyon homeowners sued.
The MRCA this year declined to appeal the court decision, although it had previously said it would appeal. Amerikaner said the current proposal, known as a public access enhancement plan/public works plan was a method for the conservancy to avoid trying to get a new coastal development permit.