Residents bemoan community tie that will be lost.
By Tracy Marcynzsyn/Special to The Malibu Times
Lower Topanga residents are standing ground, with some refusing to leave their homes for newer pastures until absolutely forced to.
Since the recent acquisition of the 1,649 acres of land by California State Parks, many of Lower Topanga Canyon’s residents have received notices to vacate by July 1 with offers of replacement housing, and are preparing to move. Several residents, however, are planning to stay, having yet to receive notice to vacate or options for housing.
“It isn’t happening yet,” said attorney Craig Dummit, hired by the residents for his experience in similar situations.
“Anyone who is unwilling or unable is not going to be moving by July 1,” asserted Dummit, referring to the deadline initially set by State Parks to have the residents vacated.
According to the Relocation Act, the residents must be provided with affordable replacement housing before they are required to leave the premises. In many cases, residents received eviction notices before receiving offers of replacement housing, and many question if there is enough affordable housing to relocate to.
“Last resort housing” provisions require housing to be built for the residents, if it cannot be found, according to Dummit.
Dummit believes residents shouldn’t be asked to move until it’s “absolutely necessary and certainly not before State Parks has the projected funds in its budget for the proposed project [converting the land into a state park].”
He contends that residents should be allowed to stay, provided their presence does not interfere with public usage of the area.
“People have lived here for 40 or 50 years and it hasn’t interfered with public usage of the area,” said Dummit.
But State Parks spokesman Steve Caps claims residential use of the park area is “incompatible.”
“The residents have known for a long time that eventually it’s going to be public property,” said Caps, who believes residents are being treated fairly.
“These people are getting something the vast majority of renters would not get,” Caps said, referring to the relocation costs and the average $90,000 settlement being paid to residents asked to vacate.
No amount of money, however, say residents, can replace the community ties that will be lost when they are forced to relocate. Having lived as neighbors for decades, community members have come to depend on one another and their lives are intertwined in many cases.
Resident and artist Bernt Capra, who also serves as co-chair of the Lower Topanga Community Association, explains that his son tutors a neighbor’s son, and another son works in the video library of another neighbor.
“This is how things should be,” Capra said. “We live as a tight community-coming home, you’re never alone … it’s a real artists community and something that is irreplaceable. Now we’ll all be scattered.”
Capra has not found replacement housing for himself and his children.
Capra and others are suggesting creative alternatives to simply relocating, suggesting a land exchange in which State Parks can sell the residents 50 acres of land already owned by the agency, or rebuilding as a community in another location, or possibly restoring their current housing in a rustic flavor that would enhance the state park by preserving the charm and sparseness of an artistic colony.
Area businesses have already been informed they can remain for at least two more years. Wylie’s Bait and Tackle and the Topanga Ranch Motel have also been given historical landmark status, allowing the structures to remain, according to Ginny Wylie, owner of the bait and tackle shop. While her residence and business are attached, it is unclear to her whether she will be allowed to continue to live in her home.
“The business goes hand in hand with living here,” Wylie said. “I use the house for storage, and I’d be concerned about my safety having to drive to work at 4:30 in the morning.”
Still, some residents are preparing to move, like it or not. Resident Scott Dittrich, also a co-chair of the Lower Topanga Community Association, says his situation is one of the “success stories.”
After looking for a year and a half, he found a house in Malibu. “I am one of the lucky ones,” said Dittrich. “Others are completely frustrated. The community can’t absorb all these people.
“They can have a state park without forcing people out in this brutal way,” Dittrich continued, who acknowledged the local State Park officials are good guys trying to do their job and enforce the rules.
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” said one State Parks employee, wishing to remain anonymous, who does not want to be treated as a bad guy.
While State Parks claims the value of returning this land to wetlands, asserting that Topanga Creek is one of the last free-running streams in Southern California and that the public should be able to hike and picnic there, others question the taxpayer’s money spent on the purchase.
“At $56,000 an acre, they paid three times more for this land than for Tuna Canyon, and the land is mostly unusable,” said Capra, also noting the massive construction planned for Pacific Coast Highway, which may take as long as 10 years to complete and millions of dollars.