Coastal snubs Malibu’s request for overnight camping ban

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Citizens are disappointed and outraged; city unsure if it will file a lawsuit against the state.

By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer

A busload of Malibu residents traveled to Marina Del Rey last Wednesday, joined there by city council members and more citizens, only to be figuratively slapped in the face by the California Coastal Commission with its decision to allow overnight camping within city limits.

The commission at its 10-hour meeting last week unanimously rejected the City of Malibu’s request to amend its Local Coastal Program, which included a proposed ban on overnight camping within city limits. It then subsequently approved an LCP amendment override submitted by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and its sister organization, Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority, that in effect gave approval of the Malibu Parks Public Access Enhancement Plan Overlay, which includes overnight camping at three Malibu canyon parks, as well as permission to have a certain number of events at one of the parks.

The City of Malibu has until Aug. 9 to file a new lawsuit against the state, but has not decided whether it will do so, City Attorney Christi Hogin said Tuesday in an e-mail to The Malibu Times. A lawsuit filed against the state by the city last July challenging the eligibility of the conservancy’s application to be reviewed by the Coastal Commission has been dismissed, she added.

The parks enhancement plan, long opposed by numerous Malibu residents who say it increases the risk of fires, will create a total of 29 overnight camping sites at Ramirez, Escondido and Corral canyon parks; allow 32 special events (parties of up to 200 people) per year at the conservancy’s Ramirez Canyon property (donated by Barbara Streisand); a 32-space parking lot at the top of Winding Way and improvements to local trails to create the Coastal Slope Trail that will connect the east and west ends of Malibu. Though the proposed plan would prohibit campfires, residents doubt the extent to which that rule would be enforced.

The commission-rejected amendment proposed by Malibu sought to change its Local Coastal Program-the state-drafted document that sets zoning and building standards for Malibu development-to ban overnight camping in parks and recreation areas within city limits. The city’s proposed LCP amendment also requested a requirement for the construction of a new access road into Ramirez Canyon from Kanan-Dume Road prior to the implementation of additional park uses at Ramirez Canyon Park.

Commissioners at the meeting said Malibu’s proposed amendment would decrease potential public access and recreation uses within the city. The commission staff report states the amendment is inconsistent with policies of the Coastal Act, the primary law that governs the decisions of the Coastal Commission. The act outlines, among other things, standards for development within the Coastal Zone.

Mayor Andy Stern, however, said Tuesday in a telephone interview, “The Coastal Commission ruled that things in our plan were not in conformance with the Coastal Act, but that the almost identical things in the MRCA’s plan were [in conformance]. I don’t understand how they can do that.”

All except two aspects of the plans submitted by the city and the conservancy were virtually identical, Hogin said on Tuesday. After the 2007 fires in Corral and Malibu Canyons, the city rescinded its proposal to allow limited overnight camping in some areas and instead requested that the Coastal Commission certify an amendment to the city’s certified LCP to ban overnight camping citywide.

Secondly, due to the fact that Ramirez Canyon has no alternative evacuation route, the city proposed that intensified public use of Ramirez Canyon Park only be allowed under the condition that a secondary access road was installed. “Malibu has Santa Ana conditions, explosive fire behavior and it’s dangerous,” Scott Poster, deputy chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told the commission. “People get killed here. The conservancy’s Ramirez Canyon property was originally designed for single-family residential use and is not intended for use as a public park.”

At the meeting, Poster said the absence of an alternative evacuation route would “jeopardize public safety” and that the L.A. County Fire Department would not approve any plans unless mitigation measures were implemented. Such mitigation measures include access roads with minimum widths of 20 feet, the prohibition of open flames, and closing parks on red flag days, among others.

Joe Edmiston, executive director of the SMMC, told the commission that Malibu’s plan ensures “no public use of the valuable, dedicated, generously gifted resource for the people of California … and worse yet,” he continued, “no one will ever, unless they pay through the nose, sleep under the stars in a public park in Malibu.”

Malibu City Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, however, pointed out a part of the commission’s staff report that states no alternative overnight camping sites in Malibu exist. “You cannot make that finding today that disapproval would adversely affect public welfare in that they will be denied the right to overnight camping in Malibu. We already have 324 sites.”

Malibu residents, fire victims and city officials who, in testimonies before the commission, said they support public access, criticized the parks enhancement plan for its exclusion of numerous fire safety measures and an environmental impact report.

“Anyone who wants to enjoy and preserve the beauty of the canyon is wholeheartedly welcome,” Corral Canyon resident B.B. Young told the commission. “But we know from painful experience how easy it is for a few sparks to ignite a wildfire in drought-parched brush and how hard it is to control such a fire once it is started.”

Though residents expressed fire safety as their primary concern, parks enhancement plan advocates accused them of NIMBYism.

Charles Thompson, executive director of Outwards Bounds Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization that leads outdoor activities for the underprivileged, spoke of the need for inner city children to bond with nature and said the lack of public access makes it difficult for them to do so. “This becomes a civil right that’s being denied,” Thompson said. “We need to think about sharing the wealth we have up there.”

Despite Malibu residents’ disappointment with the commission’s ruling, Conley Ulich on Thursday in a telephone interview urged them to get fire-ready. “Don’t get mad, get prepared,” she said.