Safety and traffic concern neighbors.
By Jeff Bertolucci/Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu Parks and Recreation Commission wants to build ball fields on a 15-acre parcel in Trancas Canyon, but some area residents fear the proposed park will bring unwanted traffic and noise to the west Malibu neighborhoods that border it.
Some 30 nearby residents attended Saturday’s tour of the proposed Trancas Park site, which sits on a mostly hilly plot of land donated to the city earlier this year. The site includes six flat acres suitable for a multi-use sports fields and other outdoor uses, according to Malibu Director of Parks and Recreation Paul Adams.
The park site overlooks the Malibu West neighborhood, which is separated from the parcel by a steep cliff and a concrete flood control channel. To the west is the narrow Trancas Canyon Road, which rises up a hill to a gated area of homes overlooking the site. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area lies to the north.
“We have 850 children playing AYSO soccer, but the City of Malibu doesn’t own one soccer or baseball field,” said Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Dermot Stoker. “With this park, we’ll have someplace positive for our children to recreate.”
Neighborhood activists are concerned about Trancas Park’s impact on parking, traffic and noise. At a public workshop at Malibu West Swim Club following the site tour, some residents questioned the site’s accessibility.
“The proposed access from Trancas Canyon Road is going to create a public safety problem, and accidents are already near misses at that point,” said Dave Sweet, who lives in the neighborhood overlooking the site.
Malibu West resident Debbie Glovin Rosenberg called the park a “great idea” but said its hilly terrain might create some problems.
“My concerns are safety, traffic and the impact on the neighbors,” she said. “That’s a difficult topography for a park.”
But even Trancas Park opponents admitted that Malibu faces a serious shortage of ball fields for children. The facility at Malibu Bluffs Parks is threatened by the Coastal Commission’s proposed Malibu Land Use Plan, which would convert the 12-acre site to visitor-serving uses.
And even if Trancas Park is built and the Bluffs’ fields stay, the combined ball fields “would come nowhere close to meeting our overall needs,” Adams said.
The Trancas site has an interesting history in that it was used as a ball field in the 1970s and early ’80s, according to Stoker.
“It was built in honor and memory of one of the local boys who was killed in Vietnam,” he said.
That facility also included a basketball court, but years of neglect have removed all signs of it. The site was graded decades ago for five single-family homes, Adams said.
The site’s six flat acres include a large, 480- by 240-foot parcel big enough for a full-size soccer field, as well as a smaller, triangular parcel to the north, which could be used as a picnic area, a meditation spot or a playground for small children.
“We wouldn’t want to turn this into the Bluffs Park where we’re bringing hundreds of cars up here on the weekend,” said Adams, who added that a practice field is the best use for the larger pad.
Lights are out of the question.
“If I can’t get them at the Bluffs, I can’t get them here,” he added.
Some residents feel the smaller parcel is ideal for a dog park, a facility that Malibu currently lacks.
“I think we need a public facility for dogs to be off-leash,” said Carol Randall at the public workshop. “We call ourselves a rural community, and for some of us our dogs are our best friends.”
No architect has been hired to design Trancas Park, but Parks and Recreation Commission member Doug O’Brien and architect Ed Niles have created a conceptual plan that includes two baseball fields, a soccer field overlay, a 10,000 square foot community center and 140 parking spaces.
However, O’Brien fears public opposition might kill Trancas Park.
“The naysayers show up at these (public hearings) and the active people with kids don’t have time to show up,” he said.
A second public workshop on Trancas Park is scheduled for May 2 at 7 p.m. at Bluffs Park. After that, the Parks and Recreation Commission will present its park proposal to the City Council.