If you have lived in Malibu for any length of time, you can only regard the outcome of the recent meeting of the Planning Commission with a mixture of despair and black humor. The commission, voting 5-0, endorsed the proposal to establish overnight camping grounds in local parks. Clearly Malibu is caught in a vise between two powerful public agencies, the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy and the California Coastal Commission, that don’t seem to answer to any higher level of government and that don’t give a hoot about the welfare of this community. Those of us who have lived along the ocean have long been painfully aware of the capricious power of the Coastal Commission. Now the folks on the hill are going to get it, because along comes the conservancy to impose its will on the people of Malibu, despite the cogent arguments at the hearing against overnight camping from every witness at the hearing, save one.
Interesting similarities between the two: both have directors that have been in office longer than most Supreme Court justices, long enough to consolidate their power to the point where they can indulge their personal whims whenever they feel like it. And they both sing the same tune: the access song. It’s all about access. Never mind that thousands of visitors come to Malibu beaches and parks every year. You can always blow a minor issue out of proportion when you need a story and a headline from a compliant press. How does this one grab you? “Rich Malibu Celebrities Fight to Keep Poor People From Public Campgrounds (beaches, or whatever).”
Fire danger? Beach erosion? Poor law enforcement on beach or parks? Violation of property rights? Silly, those are minor issues.
The city council, in its defensive crouch, doesn’t seem to have much response. I don’t really blame them, although I wish at least one would step up to the bully pulpit and sound off on our behalf, regardless of the political cost. The citizens of Malibu are going to have to get mad enough to do it on their own.
What’s that you say? Sara Wan is on both the Coastal Commission and the conservancy? Whew! Thank god. For a minute there I thought we were in real trouble.
Marshall Lumsden