Summer has yet to arrive, but a battle over parking is already under way.
A pair of California Coastal Commissioners have appealed the installation of 10 “No Parking” signs along Pacific Coast Highway near Paradise Cove Road, arguing that Caltrans and the City of Malibu failed to mitigate for the loss of spaces when parking was banned along 1,000 feet of a narrow shoulder last year. The appeal was filed on March 14 by Commissioners Dayna Bochco and Mark Vargas.
Citing the city’s local coastal plan (LCP), Bochco and Vargas said the city did not look at other alternatives before “restricting the use of public parking spaces” and did not address the loss of parking along a PCH stretch “that was once available for public parking.”
But city officials said the Coastal Commission is failing to understand the problem at hand—safety. Paradise Cove has been an area of major worry in Malibu, with residents and officials often expressing concerns over the number of tourists the area attracts on weekends and during the summertime.
“I think that after they see our pictures and our movies [of tourists flocking to the area], I’d like to personally escort anyone who’s interested out to Paradise Cove on a warm sunny weekend,” said Councilwoman Laura Rosenthal.
Jack Ainsworth, Senior Deputy Director for the Commission’s South Central Coast District Office, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that there is a definite public safety threat but the city and Caltrans should have presented alternatives before moving forward with the signs.
“The city just failed to address [alternatives] at all,” he said.
According to Ainsworth, alternatives could include widening the highway to accommodate parking spaces and adding a sidewalk.
“They could do improvements to roadway, widen it out. It’s difficult there because there’s a slope. If that’s not feasible then that’s when this mitigation is supposed to kick in and they have to look around the area where someplace they could put equivalent parking,” he said.
Caltrans refused to specifically comment on whether it believes the Coastal Commission’s appeal has any merit, offering only a brief statement.
“Caltrans’ top priority is public safety, and we will continue to work with all stakeholders on solutions that protect the safety of all roadway users,” said Public Information Officer Kelly Markham.
City and Caltrans officials pushed to install the signs in May 2013 with an emergency coastal development permit (CDP) after many complained of roadside parking being too narrow near the PCH and Paradise Cove Road intersection. Some even witnessed mothers loading their children into strollers as vehicles narrowly passed by on Pacific Coast Highway.
“This intersection is extremely busy during the summer months and the conflicts between vehicles travelling at a high rate of speed on the highway, pedestrians walking on the highway and the public improperly parking vehicles on highway shoulders ill-equipped to serve as parking spaces increased the likelihood of additional accidents and injury in the area,” city staff wrote in a recent report.
It is unclear whether Bochco or Vargas have visited the site, but Planning Director Joyce Parker-Bozylinski said she met last year with Coastal Commission representatives to discuss the idea of putting up the signs, and no indication was made by CCC reps that they might appeal the installation.
As the process moved forward, the city’s planning department and Caltrans justified the new signs because all the affected spaces were either not wide enough under state standards or were too close to a public bus stop.
“We decided the parking didn’t need to be replaced because the spots were already in unsafe locations that should have never been zoned parking anyway,” Parker-Bozylinski said. “And Caltrans agreed.”
She maintained that no legal parking spots were removed, but “a rough estimate of the number of vehicles that could have fit into the area would be around 48 spaces.”
The signs went up through a temporary permit issued last May, and the Malibu Planning Commission approved the permanent placement of the signs in February.
Planning Commissioner John Mazza this week spoke out against the appeal as well.
“Most of those spots are technically unusable, they’re too narrow,” Mazza said. But he lamented that the signs have only encouraged visitors to park farther away.
“It’s a drop in the bucket. All it did was push the parking farther away. People walk further down the highway,” he said.
And on warm, busy days, the cars visiting Paradise Cove also begin to combine with cars parking on PCH to hike on the Winding Way/Escondido Falls trail nearby, he said.
The appeal now must be heard by the California Coastal Commission on a date uncertain. Parker-Bozylinski said she has also scheduled a meeting with local CCC representatives to discuss their issues with the “No Parking” signs.