PCH safety concerns

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The following is addressed to the City Council.

You face a life or death decision. If you approve Malibu Inn pouring drunken drivers and chaotic traffic onto PCH, then you decided to let PCH be deadly. If you give the issue of safety at Malibu Inn over to the Public Safety Commission then you decided to make PCH safer. You have in your hands your families’ lives and your neighbors’ lives. Will you decide for more safety or for more funerals?

I don’t understand how city staff and some planning commissioners could approve this project and yet there is no approval by the Public Safety Commission? Some city staff and some planning commissioners do not care about public safety or they wouldn’t have approved this project, which allows so many patrons with so few parking spaces. That is just one of many hazards from parking and traffic at the Malibu Inn. And it is only going to get more dangerous with two more restaurants opening nearby, more Pepperdine students, and who knows how many dump truck runs out of Malibu Lagoon.

All of you city council members have said you want to do something to make PCH safer. Require the Malibu Inn to have a safety plan recommended by the Public Safety Commission If you city council members are to be believed when you say you care about PCH safety, then you must care about a public safety plan for the Malibu Inn.

There are many suggestions that could be evaluated by the Public Safety Commission. My recommendations include a traffic study specific to Malibu Inn, especially for summer months, and a traffic study of all congestion in that area. Traffic and parking are very dangerous and confusing now, and will get much worse with the new restaurants and with the bulldozing of Malibu Lagoon.

Make valet parking mandatory and add parking using Malibu Inn’s land or arrange for use of the pier parking after hours.

Require licensed security guards hired by Malibu Inn working until all patrons have left. Consult Caltrans on improving the traffic light and traffic flow and adding deceleration lanes to enter and exit the Malibu Inn. Add Sheriff’s deputies to patrol that area of PCH, especially during summer and require Malibu Inn to hire and pay for additional deputies during special events. End liquor sales by 11 p.m.

A city council meeting is not the place where significant safety problems can be solved. Send this issue to the Public Safety Commission where proposed suggestions and mitigations can be dealt with by the community. Why have a Public Safety Commission if you don’t use it?

Cindy Vandor