Ramirez Canyon Preservation fund attorney Steve Amerikaner and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston would not discuss the details of the mediation sessions. But they say it is unlikely the dispute could be settled outside of a courtroom.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Two mediation sessions before retired Judge Steven Stone were unable to generate a resolution between Ramirez Canyon property owners and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy in their dispute over the use of the conservancy’s Ramirez property.
The Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund, which represents the property owners, will now renew its lawsuit to remove the conservancy’s offices from the property. Meanwhile, the conservancy is pursuing its enhancement plan for the site, a plan Ramirez Canyon attorney Steve Amerikaner says his client may challenge with an additional lawsuit.
Amerikaner said on Tuesday that although there were some points on which he and SMMC officials made progress during the two mediation sessions, there were many on which no progress was made. He declined to specify any details, citing a gag order. Joe Edmiston, executive director of the SMMC, made similar comments following a conservancy meeting on Monday night.
“The mediation is over,” Edmiston said. “Unless substantial changes come about in the position of the two parties, the matter will not be settled [outside of a courtroom]. But I am always open to a new proposal.”
The mediation sessions were designed to settle two conflicts. One regarded a lawsuit the Ramirez Canyon property owners had filed to remove the conservancy offices from the Ramirez Canyon site, claiming the conservancy could only use the land as open space. The other issue was the conservancy’s proposal for an enhancement plan of its Ramirez Canyon property that does not need approval from the city, which Ramirez property owners say violates the Malibu Local Coastal Program.
At its meeting on Monday, the SMMC board unanimously approved, with one abstention, a measure that transferred $385,000 in SMMC Proposition 50 money to its sister organization the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (the SMMC owns the Ramirez property, while the MRCA operates it) for the enhancement plan (which also includes the SMMC’s Escondido and Corral Canyon properties), including $150,000 for legal services. According to the staff report, the money was needed for legal fees for the MRCA’s “defense of legal actions intended to stop public access and interfere with public benefit.”
But Amerikaner said at the meeting that this was a misuse of Proposition 50 money because the SMMC can only grant money to other state organizations, according to its laws, “for development of essential related public facilities.”
“SMMC operates regional offices for its top level staff at Ramirez Canyon,” Amerikaner said at the meeting, noting that the Malibu Local Coastal Program designates the property as open space. “Is this an essential related public service justifying the use of Prop 50 grant funds?”
But Edmiston said after the meeting that the use of the property for its offices was legal because there is a decreased use on the property compared to when singer/actress Barbra Streisand owned it before she donated the land in 1993. He added that the use of Proposition 50 funds to keep the offices there and for its enhancement plan followed the proposition language that the SMMC must use the money for “acquisition and development of facilities to promote public access to and participation in the conservation of land, water and wildlife resources.”
A public hearing on the enhancement plan, which includes the creation of camping grounds and programs to bring visitors to the SMMC Malibu properties, took place on July 31. Several dozen area residents complained the plan would bring too many visitors to the area, cause traffic nightmares and was the SMMC’s way of getting around the Malibu LCP.
Edmiston said on Monday that the conservancy would be amending the plan based on suggestions it received from the California Coastal Commission staff and to meet fire safety issues raised during the July 31 hearing. The SMMC board will vote on the plan during a meeting later this fall. If approved, the plan would then be sent to the Coastal Commission for a final vote.
After the SMMC obtained the Ramirez Canyon property, it initially used the site for parties and weddings. This stopped after the city won a lawsuit. The conservancy later obtained a coastal development permit to enhance the property, but the permit was set aside by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge after a lawsuit was filed by the Ramirez Canyon property owners.
Amerikaner has said he believes the latest enhancement plan by the SMMC is a way to get around city law. He said the Ramirez Canyon property owners have not decided yet whether they will be filing an additional lawsuit regarding the plan, but that it is a possibility.