The park project, which would include soccer and baseball fields, and possibly a dog park, is estimated to cost $3.1 million.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
City officials say they are not troubled by a mysterious petition floating around West Malibu encouraging people to challenge the proposed Trancas Park plan. The petition, which has an anonymous writer, was distributed under people’s doors throughout the area.
“People who have concerns can come to public hearings we will have,” City Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said. “Anonymous letters don’t do any good. People totally don’t respect people who write anonymous letters.”
The petition states traffic and fire hazard concerns, and the author says building homes on the 13.5-acre Trancas Canyon Road property would be a better idea.
“Trancas Canyon Road has only one outlet to Pacific Coast Highway by which residents and visitors are able to escape to safety, should such an event occur here in our neighborhood,” the author wrote. “The traffic problems and confusion for the evacuation of additional cars from the 93-car parking areas now being proposed, added to the traffic headed down from the Trancas Highlands area on the same road, would be horrendous and life-threatening.”
The author encouraged people to sign the petition and submit it to City Hall. The city manager could not be reached this week to see if he had received any petitions.
A West Malibu resident involved in local politics said he believed a Trancas Highlands resident wrote the petition. It is not stated in the petition where the author lives.
There is no solid proposal yet for the property, which is located on Trancas Canyon Road, just more than half a mile north of Pacific Coast Highway. A basic plan has been advertised by the city that includes baseball and soccer practice fields along with a basketball court, a dog park, picnic shelter and tables, a play area for young children and restrooms.
An environmental impact report is being drafted now, and is expected to be released early July. The public will then be allowed to submit comments to the city on the document. Public hearings on the project would begin in the fall.
The project is estimated to cost $3.1 million. So far, the city has designated $665,000 for the project. At a meeting in February, the City Council instructed city finance head Reva Feldman to examine how the city could come up with the additional $2.5 million. The council members proposed some of their own ideas at that meeting, including taking money out of the city’s General Fund and issuing certificates of participation, which are similar to bonds. The city raised most of its money to buy the Chili Cook-Off site by issuing COPs.
Feldman said this week that she and a city consultant are still researching the subject. In addition to determining how the city could fund this project, they are also studying how it could afford other upcoming city capital projects.
The Trancas property previously was home to a football field, built nearly 40 years ago in memory of a young Malibu resident who died in the Vietnam War. But as the demographics of the city changed in the ’70s, with the city’s young population mostly disappearing, the field began to decay due to disuse. Various owners considered it for development, but it was determined that building there would be difficult. The property was donated to the city in 2003.
This Trancas property is not part of the nearby 35-acre site owned by Trancas PCH that has been the subject of various lawsuits and attempts at ball field development.