The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority wants to develop and open a public beach access site at a location on Malibu Road. Local homeowners, including the mayor pro tem, oppose the plan.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
The California Coastal Conservancy is scheduled to meet Thursday this week to decide whether to transfer ownership of a vacant lot at 24038 Malibu Road to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority for proposed public beach access. It will also vote whether to give up to $25,000 for pre-construction activities, including bid preparation and environmental review.
The conservancy will also decide whether to grant up to $25,000 to the nonprofit Los Angeles Forum to conduct public access beach tours at Broad Beach, Lechuza Beach, Malibu Road and Carbon Beach.
The City of Malibu in March granted the conservancy a coastal development permit to allow for the construction of a public beach access, five public parking spaces, a permeable fence and gate, and a variance for construction on slopes steeper than what is allowed by city code at the proposed access location.
Joan Cardellino, the Coastal Conservancy’s deputy South Coast regional manager, on Tuesday estimated the overall cost of developing the proposed access site to be between $600,000 and $800,000. Though the conservancy hopes to begin construction in 2010, Cardellino said it “depends on when cash starts flowing with state bond sales.”
Public access to local beaches has long been a source of contention in Malibu. Music producer David Geffen fought a long and bitter losing battle with Steve Hoye of the nonprofit group Access for All, which in 2005 opened and now maintains the vertical accessway to the beach that runs next to Geffen’s home. (A vertical accessway is a path that leads from a public road to the beach.) Coastal Commissioner Sara Wan made local news headlines in 2003 when she spread a towel on sand at Broad Beach on what was purported by local homeowners to be private beach land. A private security guard on an ATV, failing to get Wan to budge, called Sheriff’s deputies, who then gave their best in removing Wan.
In long ago deals, the Coastal Commission required beachfront property owners to dedicate part of their land for accessways to the beach in order to receive permits to build. However, many of these offers to dedicate are set to expire soon, and the state, along with nonprofit groups, has been working over the years to open as many as they can.
Residents have been accused of NIMBYism, but they say they are concerned with safety and unmonitored trash, among other issues.
Some Malibu Road residents call the proposed Malibu Road public access financially wasteful and unsafe because, they say, the rocky beach below is unfit for public use, especially at high tide when there is no room to walk.
“By granting easy [beach] access, you’re building a trap,” said Malibu Road Homeowners Association President Bill Rhodes Tuesday in a telephone interview. “It could kill someone. You could get slammed against the rocks and get swept out to sea. That’s our greatest concern, it’s a dangerous area.”
Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Barovsky, who lives on Malibu Road, agreed with Rhodes.
Cardellino, however, said Tuesday in a telephone interview that the proposed public access will actually increase public safety, and that the possibility for the MRCA to be sued by an injured beachgoer has not dissuaded project plans.
“Putting a stairway in will increase safety because people will have a safe way to exit [the beach],” Cardellino said. “We have reviewed this project extensively and, in our opinion, it’s a comparable risk to almost any other beach.”
Additional problems with the proposed public access, Rhodes said, are the absence of restroom facilities and lifeguards, and only five public parking spaces available. “It seems like they could put the money elsewhere that would allow many more than five people to get access,” Rhodes said.
“We think five [parking spots] are adequate,” Cardellino said in response.
If the conservancy votes to grant the Los Angeles Forum, or LAF, up to $25,000 to fund public educational beach tours for the next two years, groups of 30 will be among other beachgoers utilizing the proposed public access, along with those at Broad Beach, Carbon Beach and Lechuza Beach.
“There are eight accessways [on Malibu Road],” Barovsky said. “Why not just hold the tours at an existing access?”
If it receives funding, the LAF plans to partner with Los Angeles Urban Rangers, a small tour group, to educate the public to respect the rights of nearby owners by providing clear, accurate information about the public and private areas of the beach.
The Coastal Act decrees all land seaward of the mean high tide line as public. However, where that line falls has been hotly debated.