On April 6, 2001, we informed the City Council and the City Manger Christi Hogin that Caltrans had agreed in a grant application with the nonprofit Malibu Beach Esplanade Corporation, as co-applicants, to fund, construct and maintain Phase 1 of the Malibu Beach Esplanade project.
This Phase 1 improvement consists of a wide promenade with benches, lighting, planters and landscaping along Pacific Coast Highway starting at the Malibu Pier and extending to Malibu Lagoon State Park at Cross Creek Road (all within Caltrans right-of-way). The design and construction drawings have been completed by the nonprofit and need only to be reconciled to Caltrans specifications.
The grant funds of $711,000 for landscaping/ scenic beautification will be administered by Caltrans. The only responsibility of the city is to meet the matching funds requirement of 11 percent, or approximately $80,000.
This is a great opportunity for Malibu, and we were very pleased to have succeeded in achieving this level of cooperation from Caltrans, but we can’t say the same for the city. Sadly, we have been virtually ignored. We were told there was no money available in the present budget and to resubmit our request again after July 1, when the council allocates money for specific projects for the coming year. We did this, and to date we have had no response whatever.
We are still waiting for the City to act, and in the meantime we will probably lose another chance to get this work done. This project has been around for some time and has been thoroughly reviewed and accepted by the community.
Ironically, during the last council meeting, Tom Hasse was commenting on the many complaints he receives on the appearance of PCH and wanted to know the status of still another project, this one to beautify the median, which has been in the planning stages for some time as well. Mayor House responded that nothing was happening because efforts to raise money had not been successful. Well what about $700,000? That’s not exactly chopped liver! And it comes with an agreement to maintain this portion of PCH in central Malibu which is highly visible, and where currently over 46,000 people pass through each day and over 1,000,000 annually visit Surfrider State Beach.
So, come on, folks. We should be able to scrounge together $80,000 to get $711,000 worth of improvements we could be proud of. Trade the trash for a promenade with flowers. We have presented the city a very important improvement, a gift, and the city would be lax in their duties to ignore it.
And to the Malibu residents who are fed up with the disgraceful conditions of our “Main Street,” PCH, continue with your complaints and join us in trying to do something about it. Fax us at 456-6937 or e-mail Ann Ryan at Design@aol.com.
Ann Ryan, president
Malibu Beach Esplanade