The Malibu City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to pursue swapping city-owned Charmlee Wilderness Park for Bluffs Park, which is controlled by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC).
As part of the same motion, the council also agreed to settle litigation with SMMC over a years-old Ramirez Canyon lawsuit, and to enter a five-year lease agreement with SMMC where each party would lease the other’s park in a kind of trial swap.
City Attorney Christi Hogin said, “The idea of the leases is a five-year period where the city has standing to investigate, plan, look at environmental reports, seek entitlements, etc. Only after five years could the city implement its plans…The back door is wide open…The city is not taking any irreversible steps.”
The Malibu Times will have more on Tuesday’s City Council meeting in the coming days.Â