Nearly every resident of Malibu’s Sycamore Park neighborhood — in the PCH and Via Escondido Drive area — crowded into a public meeting of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) Board at King Gillette Ranch Monday night. On the agenda was a vote on whether the SMMC should purchase undeveloped property at 6118 Via Escondido Drive for $1 million. After an hour’s worth of heartfelt public comments from local residents, who politely ripped the SMMC staff report to shreds over misdirection and inaccuracies, the board rubber-stamped the purchase. The only “no” vote came from Malibu’s one member on the huge board — Dolphin Award winner Patt Healy.
Specifically, the vote authorized a grant of Proposition 1 funds to MRCA (Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority — a sister organization of SMMC) for acquisition of a 2.7-acre parcel in Escondido Canyon within the City of Malibu.
According to Ken Kearsley, former mayor and city councilmember who lives in Sycamore Park, “The MRCA is trying to get a foothold in our small private community in order to create a public thoroughfare where one does not exist. They will use our reciprocal easement rights to bring in “invitees” (aka the general public) to use our private roads as a means to access Escondido Falls, as they have done on Winding Way. An analogy would be if Joe [Edmiston, executive director of SMMC/MRCA] bought a lot in La Costa that has deeded beach club rights, and then invited the public to use the beach facilities.”
In reviewing the 24-page “Escondido Creek Acquisition Project” grant proposal and memo, access to Winding Way was not the explicitly stated reason for purchasing the property. According to those documents, acquiring this mere 2.7-acre parcel property would allow them to do a myriad of things: Protect 120 feet of a blue-line stream (dry most of the year, it was noted), protect an environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA), create a wildlife corridor and link to the Coastal Slope Trail, save the property from having a house built on it, and protect the watershed.
But the proposal was riddled with inaccuracies and overstated benefits, according to neighborhood residents. Malibu neighbors attempted to point these out to the board during public comments and say the real intention of the purchase was on page 8: “Converting the property to public ownership will allow for enhanced public access and recreational opportunities.”
Neighbors showed proof that trails referenced as connectors, like the Haunted House Trail, were never adopted, approved or created, and that these “wish list” trails had been removed from all official city maps. There are no trails in this neighborhood, they said.
The SMMC replied curtly, “Just because Malibu doesn’t have it on their trail map doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or can’t be built.”
Some speakers pointed out that SMMC would not be saving ESHA because they planned on putting in picnic tables and allowing parking for the disabled.
“A parking lot and picnic tables don’t qualify as watershed protection,” Attorney Nancy Goldstein said. “Acquiring the parcel doesn’t get you anything. You’re asking to bring people in to use the stream as opposed to conserving it … The easements granted already are not public access — this is a private road.”
Several speakers claimed that according to city local coastal program and coastal development permit documents, the dry creek area on this property is already being preserved, and a home cannot be built creekside. The neighbors even dispute the claim of 120 feet of creekside property on the parcel, and object to the report’s claim of “water-based recreation” on a dry creek.
Commenters told the board that the overuse of current trails leading to Escondido Falls, which are also managed by Edmiston’s groups, is not something they want for their small neighborhood. “Winding Way is completely overloaded on the weekends. It is not wilderness,” one said. “By the waterfall, the vegetation has been completely denuded by people climbing through it. Tons of trash. There’s toilet paper because there’s no public bathroom there. Graffiti is all over, including on the protected oak trees, and there’s vandalism. There’s a lack of MRCA enforcement and management on the property.”
Edmiston responded, “We have an application pending in Malibu to install a restroom, and we’re just not getting the cooperation from the city that we’d like to see … The fact that a trail is popular is not a reason to stop creating more.”
Paul Edelman, chief ecologist, staunchly defended SMMC’s proposal.
“There are zero inaccuracies in the proposal,” he said.
The only remedy left to the Sycamore Park residents now is to take legal action, which some indicated was likely.