The slide that severed Hume Road on April 10 reduced Las Flores to 2/3 of a single lane have put at risk the entire Rambla Pacifico/Las Flores neighborhoods. So normally you’d expect this letter to be lamenting the inaction and bureaucratic delays by government agencies. But this is not the case and this disaster has a good side that the rest of Malibu needs to hear.
The day after the Hume slide, the City of Malibu held an emergency meeting at City Hall that included city officials, department heads and technical people plus about 15 people from the affected neighborhoods. The City recognized the situation as an emergency and took decisive action to determine the best solution to provide emergency access as well as a more permanent solution. That same afternoon, the County was contacted by our City officials and, after what I understand was a rather lengthy and persuasive conversation, our County officials were convinced of the critical nature should a fire or other emergency occur. That same night at the City Council meeting, a resolution was passed to direct staff to determine the best plan and carry it out. The next day our City public works engineers visited the two slides to see the damage first hand.
A plan is now underway to get an emergency fire road built in a very short time frame. And the County has scheduled a meeting for the Rambla/Las Flores community on April 28 to discuss their plans for both short and long-term access and repairs to the county portions of the damaged roads.
In every way, our City officials have done an incredible job. They are a credit to our community and deserve a great deal of thanks from all of Malibu.
Scott Dittrich