The council approves design changes that will cost an additional $300,000, but save a ridge that locals sought to protect.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
Manners flew out the window at Monday night’s Malibu City Council meeting where, amid heckling residents and interruptions of public outcry, council members voted 4-1 to direct staff to make $300,000 grading and retaining wall changes to the Trancas Park project plans and return those changes to the council for review.
Council members also voted 3-2 to conduct a public workshop to garner community input on any potential changes to the park’s design before it is voted on at the council’s May 11 meeting.
The approved development plan for Trancas Park, a seven-acre public park on a 13.5-acre site located at 6050 Trancas Canyon Road, approximately a half mile north of the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway, will contain a multiuse (practice-only) sports field, a basketball half-court, picnic area, tot-lot, dog park, a restroom/maintenance building, storage building, shade structures, onsite wastewater treatment system, parking area and a storm water detention basin.
Despite the city’s efforts to reach a compromise between Trancas Park oppositionists, supporters and ridge-saving advocates, many residents are still not satisfied with any of the modifications made in a late-March meeting conducted by Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Barovsky.
The meeting, attended by seven Malibu West residents, City Manager Jim Thorsen and Parks and Recreation Director Bob Stallings, resulted in $300,000 modifications to the original $3.4 million park plan in order to prevent the grading of 27.5 feet of Trancas ridge, a local ridgeline situated above the park property.
To spare the ridge, the dog park was reduced from three quarters of an acre to approximately half an acre, several picnic tables and a shade structure were removed and 720 feet of heavily vegetated retaining walls to protect residents’ privacy were added.
Before council members voted on whether or not to direct staff to apply the changes to the park plan and bring it back to them for review, Mayor Andy Stern asked public speakers to make clear to the council whether they would vote in favor of or against them.
Despite his plead for clarity, most of the public speakers spoke against the whole concept of the park and delivered reasons its plan should be further modified or abolished altogether. Though few residents specified their stance on the modifications, those who did state their views supported them.
Residents in support of the park were present at the start of the meeting with their children, but had left by the time the agenda item was discussed.
Whether it was their turn to speak or not, Malibu West residents of all ages made sure the council heard their contempt for the park project. Many expressed concern over possible fire hazards and the destruction of natural habitat. Others accused the council of entitling themselves to special privileges such as increased grading. Another issue was local residents’ privacy.
“We pushed the picnic area back to address the privacy issue,” Barovsky said. “I live below Bluffs Park and you’d be amazed at how few people get to the edge of it and look down. Anyone could walk out to edge [of a park] and look into people’s yards. I feel like we are making it more private by pushing [the boundaries of the] park back.”
Resident Cindy Vandor and her son, Isaac, suggested turning Trancas Park into a “Large Area Solar System Installation,” or LASSIE park, to minimize fire risks and pollution and to gain discounts from the federal government.
Malibu West resident Scott Hubbell called the danger of fire in the community “amazingly gigantic” because of water scarcity and the fact that Malibu West utilizes the same entrance and exit. Thus, he said, implementing a park in such a neighborhood is “just not common sense.”
“This plan is the problem, not the park,” resident Steve Rucker said to the council. “I hope each of you is going be able to be comfortable and live with yourselves when a raging fire happens and we are rushing to get the hell out of there.”
Contrarily, resident Justine Petretti told oppositionists, “I’m sorry you guys don’t appreciate the park for what it is. We’re all entitled to our own opinions. I support the park. All the families and kids here [before the agenda item was discussed] supported the park.”
Pamela Conley Ulich was the only council member who voted against directing staff to implement park changes because she said she felt continued discussion was necessary to gather more input from the community.
After being outvoted by the other council members, Conley Ulich then suggested to hold a workshop before May 11, the day the council will finalize the park plans, to gather public input. All council members, excluding Barovsky and Stern, voted in favor.
One of the only elements of the park that all council members and residents were mutually concerned about was its cost.
“I think we should finish Legacy Park and make sure rental income is going to be there before we spend $4 million on Trancas Park,” Conley Ulich said, adding that she wished to discuss the LASSIE plan in the workshop.