The homeowners association loses the first round, but another hearing is set for February. It has also given more than $30,000 to fight the park.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
Seeking an injunction to the construction of Trancas Canyon Park, the Malibu West Homeowners Association last week voted 74-72 to contribute $32,500 to fund the Malibu Township Council’s ongoing lawsuit against the city’s approval of the project.
The homeowners association’s and MTC’s request for a temporary restraining order-for which the HOA paid $10,000 (out of the $32,500)-was denied Monday by the State Superior Court. However, a preliminary injunction hearing is set for Dec. 14 during which the court will determine whether the city will adjourn from further park construction until the trial date, scheduled for Feb. 2.
The Trancas Canyon Park Project, a public, seven-acre park to be built on a 13.5-acre site approximately a half mile north of the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Trancas Canyon Road, has been heavily opposed and supported by various residents, especially those of the adjacent Malibu West neighborhood, who have appealed the project twice (both appeals were denied by the city council in February).
The MTC in April sued the city, challenging the park project’s environmental impact report approved by city council the month before. After much contention, the city held a public workshop and revised the park’s design, which it approved in May. The HOA announced it would support the lawsuit last week, in the midst of settlement negotiations between city officials and the MTC.
Meanwhile, outrage has erupted from many Malibu West residents and Trancas Canyon Park supporters who say the decision to seek an injunction was made unfairly because it was based on a poll administered by the Malibu West HOA Board of Directors during the Columbus Day weekend.
The board decided in a 5-2 vote during a private meeting to administer the community poll. Ballots were distributed to Malibu West residents on Oct. 8, and were due Oct. 12 by 5 p.m. Many residents said they were out of town, some didn’t think the HOA office was open on Columbus Day, and others did not turn in ballots on time.
“There were 90 people who did not vote in this election,” Leslie Moss, a former Malibu West HOA president, said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
“I know that three of the four board members that voted live at the north end of Malibu West, that’s most affected by the park,” Malibu West resident and former Malibu West HOA board member Mark Wetton, who did not vote because he was out of town, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “A lot of us feel the decision was self-serving. The board members weren’t looking out for the best interest of the community.”
Wetton said he and Karen Norvet were replaced by new board members Cindy Vandor and Lynn Norton, who are both adamantly opposed to Trancas Canyon Park, in a recent board election, which occurs every two years.
Calls to Vandor and Norton were not returned. Current Malibu West HOA President Lloyd Greenberg declined comment.
In addition, many residents and city officials this week called the HOA’s decision to support the MTC “wasteful” and irresponsible. The ballot states that MTC attorney Frank Angel “advises that the MTC has about a 50 percent chance of prevailing in the lower court case” if the injunction succeeds and the litigation goes forward.
“The other part that’s really infuriating is that the money being spent is actually being given to Malibu Township Council, which is the one who filed the lawsuit against the city,” Wetton said. “We’re not a party to that action so we have no control over how the money is spent. That’s why we think it’s a breach of judiciary responsibility. Really, we’re giving money to an attorney [Frank Angel] that doesn’t represent us.”
Trancas Canyon Park construction began earlier this month, and could be finished by December, Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Barovsky said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “I think the Malibu West HOA’s decision is squandering the city’s resources and Malibu West residents’ resources,” she said.
“We’ve held so many public hearings that I think we reached a compromise on the park that the majority are satisfied with.”
The originally approved, $3.4 million development plan for Trancas Canyon Park included a multiuse (practice-only) sports field, a basketball half-court, picnic area, tot-lot, dog park, a restroom/maintenance building, storage building, shade structures, onsite wastewater treatment system, parking area and a storm water detention basin.
However, the park plan price tag jumped to $3.7 million in April when the city council voted to incorporate $300,000 changes to spare 27.5 feet of grading of a local ridgeline situated above the park property that many residents have sought to protect.