Some opponents of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s plan to bring overnight camping to local parks are using last week’s Canyon Fire as a tool to gather more members to their ranks. The Malibu Township Council placed advertisements in both local newspapers this week questioning how the City Council could still be preparing for a Nov. 13 hearing on the plan when, the MTC says, it presents a fire danger. Joe Edmiston, executive director of the SMMC, said the group is comparing two different things.
The SMMC’s Malibu Parks Public Access Enhancement Plan, which was endorsed last month by the Planning Commission, calls for 26 overnight camping facilities at Charmlee Wilderness Park, and at the parks at Ramirez and Corral canyons among other features. Despite a prohibition on campfires and allowable cooking being limited to the use of propane stoves, many neighbors living near the proposed campsites say there is still a fire danger.
“Can you believe that after our latest devastating wildfire our City Council members are still considering allowing overnight camping in our narrow canyons?” the newspaper ad asks. “Raise your voice! No New Camping!”
MTC Board member Marshall Thompson, who said a campaign would have started this week regardless of recent events, said the newspaper ad is only the beginning. He said a pamphlet distribution is planned for Ralphs and posters will be put up throughout the city.
“We’ve decided to take a leadership effort in this,” Thompson said this week.
But Edmiston said the SMMC’s proposal has nothing in common with last week’s fire.
“How does arcing power lines affect our plan?” asked Edmiston, referring to the theory that last week’s fire was sparked by downed power lines.
“With our plan, we’re only talking about propane,” Edmiston said. “There’s not a single instance that we can find in California history where a brush fire was started by a propane stove.”
Edmiston said the major cause of fires is arson, and he said his plan keeps arsonists away because it brings people to the parks, which arsonists do not like.
“So if you have folks out there on the trails, on the campgrounds, you’re actually safer than if you had a place where an arsonist could go skunk around,” Edmiston said.
At last month’s Planning Commission meeting, nearly 70 people spoke during the public hearing. All but two of them voiced opposition to the project. In preparation for facing a similar crowd at the council hearing, the city this week announced it would hold a workshop three days prior to the hearing.
“Because of the extent of the interest in it and because of all the various aspects that go into that decision, we’re going to hold the hearing,” City Attorney Christi Hogin said at Monday’s council meeting.
Council members are remaining mostly tight-lipped on how they feel about the SMMC’s plan, since giving a view before the Nov. 13 hearing could make them ineligible to vote. However, Councilmember Sharon Barovsky did speak about it following Hogin’s comments.
“There is so much misinformation out there on this subject that I spend all of my spare time explaining it to people,” she said. “I’m really glad we’re going to have a workshop and try to get some misconceptions [cleared up].”
Some of the opponents have also suggested because of the recent Canyon Fire that it would be a good idea for the council to at least delay the parks plan hearing. City officials are not interested.
“What are we going to do? Hide? Wait till everybody forgets about the fire?” responded Hogin when asked in an interview about a delay. “We’re all adults here. I know emotions are running high. And they were running high before the [Canyon] fire.”
The workshop on the parks plan will take place on Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School. The plan appears on the city’s Web site in the News Briefs section at www.ci.malibu.ca.us.