It was inevitable. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy hasn’t gotten its way in the residential neighborhood of Ramirez Canyon. Mediation and negotiations haven’t worked. Going directly to the Coastal Commission hasn’t worked. The new “Public Works Plan” appears not to be working either. So, now it is time to play the “elitist” card. According to a lawyer for the SMMC, we Malibu residents are “elitists” because we don’t grant the Conservancy the ability to bypass local laws. If the SMMC is taking the position that the rules that apply to everyone else in Malibu shouldn’t apply to the Conservancy (which is what their new “Public Works Plan” is all about), that is the height of elitism.
In 2002, an appeals court told SMMC that it, like everyone else, has to abide by Malibu’s land use regulations. In 2005, a superior court judge told SMMC that the permit they had obtained from the Coastal Commission was not good. Yet, SMMC still keeps its offices at Ramirez and still holds events on the property, ignoring the Malibu LCP. I guess even the rules imposed by judges can be ignored by the Conservancy. So who is the elitist?
The Conservancy needs to stop the name-calling and the deceptive behavior and resume a productive dialogue with the Ramirez Canyon residents and the Malibu City Council. The Ramirez Canyon residents are not the ones who walked out of the recent mediation. Surely the Conservancy, with its vast landholdings and its millions in government funding can find ways to accomplish its mission without running roughshod over local residents and governments.
Rick Mullen