On Monday, a very important public meeting took place at Webster Elementary School. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy held a public hearing on its Public Works Plan. The plan can be found at www.mrca.ca.gov. Every Malibu resident should be concerned about the Public Works Plan. If adopted, it will have a dramatic impact on Malibu’s neighborhoods.
This letter sets forth the position of the Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund on the Public Works Plan. The Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund supports the Conservancy’s traditional mission of acquiring and preserving open space. It supports recreational uses for open space and parkland, including trails for hikers, bikers and equestrians. And, it supports programs to make our precious parkland and open space accessible to disabled persons, including children and the elderly who might otherwise not be able to enjoy these natural wonders.
The Fund also supports protection and restoration of our watershed, and working to restore the quality of our streams and ocean waters. At the same time, the Ramirez Fund opposes this Public Works Plan because it is deeply flawed. Among the reasons for our opposition are the following:
The plan shuts Malibu’s locally elected officials out of the planning and permitting process. The plan disregards and disrespects Malibu’s adopted Local Coastal Plan. The plan is being considered without an environmental impact report, and the conservancy has announced that it will not prepare an EIR. This is a strange position for a public agency dedicated to environmental preservation to be asserting.
The plan has other flaws as well. It allows intensive commercial uses and camping in Malibu’s narrow and fire-prone canyons. While we support camping and other recreational uses, those need to be placed in locations that do not endanger nearby neighborhoods. We urge the Conservancy to revise the Public Works Plan to eliminate its serious flaws.
Lance Anderson