“We’re all very distrustful.”
It was the first time tenants of Lower Topanga Canyon had ever met in significant numbers (about 75 of them) with the people who plan to relocate them from their longtime homes. And they vented.
“Some of our homes go back 50-70 years. Would it not be possible to keep them and let them be part of the historical culture of the land?”
“What are you going to do with some of our 80-year-old citizens? A move will kill them.”
“We’re meant to be here. We’re the keepers of this land. My children have spent their whole lives here. Where am I going to take them?”
“Will you replace us with park rangers?” (Answer: “It’s premature to talk about what we might do with these structures.”)
“You want to bring people here from all over California. They will bring their trash here, trample the grounds, create fire hazards and cause more traffic congestion. We’ll keep the land the way it is, the way we always have.”
“How can you compare living somewhere else to this paradise we’re living in now?”
“You’re going to have to arrest me and handcuff me, because I’m not moving.”
But officials of the California Parks and Recreation Dept. had few answers to the tenants’ emotional outbursts. The parks officials came prepared to talk about process and procedures, not personal heartache. Timelines, not anxieties. Relocation, not dislocation.
The confrontation had been building for months, ever since it was announced the state had allocated $48 million to acquire 1,659 acres of Lower Topanga property owned by the Los Angeles Athletic Club through its parent company, LAACO, Ltd. The property stretches up through Topanga Canyon from Pacific Coast Highway.
Forty-nine tenants and their families have been renting homes on the property for several years. Many have lived there for 20, 30 and even 50 years. There are also 10 small businesses on the property.
The state hired a go-between, the American Land Conservancy (ALC), to broker the deal and relocate the tenants, hoping to avoid a direct confrontation between the state and its constituents. But the ALC and a company it hired to do the relocating, Pacific Relocation Consultants (PRC), angered many tenants, who felt they were being railroaded.
“They gave us a week’s notice of a hearing (last April),” said one tenant. ” The notice said we ‘will’ be relocated, giving us no options. They told us we would have to vacate our homes by the end of the year.” And she added, “The ALC and the PRC have been very, very, very heavy-handed.”
Perhaps because of that the state parks officials were forced to jump in and face the tenants before they would have liked. “State Parks has just been thrown into this,” said Mark Schrader, deputy director for Acquisition and Development. And he admitted they were not fully prepared to answer all the questions they were getting in the meeting Thursday night at Topanga Elementary School. But manager of acquisitions, Warren Westrup, said, “We are now mobilized to catch up.”
Here’s the view from the podium, as seen by different speakers, including Westrup, Schrader and Barry McDaniel, vice president of PRC:
“There are just as many people on the other end of the issue–the Sierra Club and others–who are asking us, ‘What’s wrong, why haven’t those people been moved out?’ “
“This land has been on Parks’ wish list for a long, long time.”
“We will look at buildings that might qualify as National Registry historical structures.”
“We’re in the business of clean water, parks, preservation. We aren’t in the business of providing housing.”
“We do understand the value of visitor-serving businesses.”
“There is a definite potential for keeping some businesses on the property.”
“We are not going to get into a debate over 1-2-5-year delays as an artist’s community.”
“We’ve used them before and they are very good. They will look out for you.” (On why PLC is being retained to carry out relocation despite hostility against it.)
“Our commitment is that you will get everything you are entitled to under state law.”
“With the payments you’ll get, some of you may be able to make a down payment on your own home somewhere else.”
“I want to make it clear that State Parks is interested in the preservation of natural resources and historical culture.”
Most of the questions and answers over 2 1/2 hours seemed to be at cross-purposes. But some concrete information got through.
Residential tenants will be given rental assistance in any new location they choose of up to $5,250 over 42 months. They will also have their moving expenses paid.
That was little consolation for those who have been paying rents as low as $450 a month and who want to stay in the Topanga-Malibu-Santa Monica area where rental space is scarce and expensive.
“What can you do,” said a tenant. “I’ll be forced to move to Barstow.”
Some visitor-serving businesses may be considered beneficial to public use and could be allowed to stay. Otherwise, they will be given a $20,000 relocation fee and possible compensation for loss of goodwill, that is, loss of regular customers and name recognition that has been built up over the years.
State Parks’ timeline is to complete acquisition of the land by the end of the year. In the meantime, it will conduct research into historical structures, water quality, archeological significance (especially Native American) and ecological balances.
Then a plan will be drawn for clearing the site and turning it into a public park.
Tenants will be gone by June 2002.
In the end, State Parks left the field of battle knowing they had finally gotten the process of relocation started on their terms.
Tenants had to be sobered by the fact that State Parks made it clear it is determined to get them off the land as soon as possible, even if not as soon as they had earlier been told.
“We hoped the guys at State would be smart enough to negotiate something fair,” said Scott Dittrich, co-chair of the tenants group Lower Topanga Community, “but we never really believed that would happen. They were just as arrogant as we figured they’d be.”
What’s next, legal action? “I hope not,” Dittrich said.
Another public meeting is scheduled for the evening of July 9 at Topanga Elementary School.