Caltrans nixes third lane on PCH
It’s a question that has been on the mind of every Malibu motorist since the summer began: When will we see the opening of that long-awaited, temporary third lane on PCH? The answer is — we won’t.
With many residents ready to blow their gaskets, the second question is: How long will we be down to just two lanes? That answer — a lot longer than expected, possibly into next year.
Caltrans has nixed the idea of adding an additional lane to accommodate rush-hour traffic, citing further delays in its hillside grading project at Las Flores. “It’s pretty much a definite decision,” says Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli. “What we’re trying to do is get the work done as quickly as possible.”
Said City Manager Harry Peacock, “The downside of opening a third lane is slowing down the project in the rainy season.”
In addition to restricting the work space for construction crews and their equipment, reconfiguration to accommodate a third lane could prove potentially dangerous. “It’s a matter of safety,” explained Assistant Resident Engineer Edmond Matevosian. “We cannot remove those sea trains [cargo containers] until the majority of the dirt is gone.”
Caltrans says the work has reached the halfway mark, with approximately 173,000 cubic yards of dirt cleared as of last week and another 170,000 cubic yards yet to go. Even so, removing all the dirt and debris is only part of the project. The area will have to be given proper drainage, as well as erosion control. Plans for a pair of concrete retaining walls have yet to be finalized.
Even though the work continues daily, a completion date could be months away. Everything from a rough patch of terrain to an afternoon rain shower could postpone the project. For that reason, there are no easy estimates. “Optimistically,” says Matevosian, “end of December — optimistically. Realistically — mid-February.”
The assistant engineer, however, did have some good news to report. According to soil testers and engineering assessments, the hillside has stabilized. One bluff-top property, it appears, will also be spared. There had been some discussion about the removal of another home on Sierks Way and the purchase of an adjacent vacant lot, but that may not be necessary. “They’ll stay,” he said. Two homes that were coming close to the point of collapse were purchased and demolished by Caltrans earlier this year.
Mammoth traffic jams, meantime, have become as familiar to Malibu as the dolphins and the high tide. On Sunday afternoon, campers and convertibles, motorcycles and MTA buses spent another day idling in the summer sun. The squeeze after Big Rock created a standstill that stretched back to Topanga, and there seems to be no end in sight. With luck and cooperation from Mother Nature, it could be over by the end of the year. Without luck and cooperation, we could be inching toward the millennium on a very rocky road.
Pole politics
Dear Mary,
I cannot resist the temptation to respond to your problems as described in The Malibu Times Aug. 13 edition, mostly because we seem to share the same misery, in a way.
It may be of some comfort to know that when compared to my efforts to be heard by anyone, you have managed to do so. Congratulations are in order, but you have been given the same snow job from Edison that I have had to live with for 25 years, the article implies that I do not exist, another lie?
When I bought my home there were two high-tension lines over the house, a year later, two telephone lines were installed, 10 feet above my roof, without my permission to do so (and without title rights).
Next, three cable lines and telephone lines directly in front of my house. Next, extending the height of a pole to add more lines with two tees, and the addition of a large transformer. All visibly destroying any view that I once had.
There are so many lines attached to one pole, the pole is bending under the strain, and that pole supports the high-voltage lines over my house.
They do not permit any camouflage for me, they are up here two and three times a year cutting everything down that gets near a pole. And in doing so, have gone through my roof, causing me to replace same, and then they deny!
I live in a prison of telephone poles and California Edison knows it, and they also know that they have reduced my property value to zero. I have no view left, and no one cares, no one.
Doris K. Janis
Farewell Malibu
After 24 happy years in Malibu, my wife and I are packing up and moving to Leisure World in Laguna Hills. This is a voluntary action on our part and has not been caused by all the unrest that has been our history since we’ve become a city.
In that regard, let me say that I’ve been an activist for those who have been for slow growth in Malibu. I’ve been accused by the opposition of being part of the “show business” mafia. I’ve been called all sorts of names in “Letters to the Editor” by those who disagreed with my position. Even that was all right. I just considered the source.
However, I don’t want to leave with a bad taste in my mouth. I met a lot of wonderful people over the years and to all of them I want to thank them for having the best interest of Malibu in their hearts.
They at least tried to do their best for all of Malibu. To my buddy Walt Keller, Carolyn Van Horn, Joan House, Tom Hasse and Harry Barovsky, I want to say that I appreciate all of your efforts. Your job isn’t easy, but at least you were noticed by those you were elected to serve.
Even with fires, slides, quakes, “Pacific Closed Highway” and all of the other troubles we’ve run into, they all pale compared to the beauty of Malibu. We’re going to miss it but we’re looking forward to Laguna and making a new home there.
So again, to all of you, we want to wish you all well and we know that we leave Malibu in good hands. To a happy future.
Lynne and Bill Egar
Another lawyer for Hogin
I am writing in response to Michael K. Schwerin’s [Letter to the Editor] attack on the city attorney, Ms. Christi Hogin in [the Aug. 13 edition of the The Surfside News]. This will be the first in a two-letter response as I wish to set forth facts rather than just allegations, as was the case in Mr. Schwerin’s correspondence to the paper.
I would first like to address the mobile home lawsuits. The actions brought by the two mobile home park owners against the city arose directly out of the actions of Walt Keller, Carolyn Van Horn and Missy Zeitsoff, Mr. Keller’s and Ms. Van Horn’s then current partner on the City Council. At the time the Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Ordinance was passed, I was a resident at Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park (the “Park”) and the attorney for the park’s homeowners association attempting to purchase the park from the Kissel Company. The week prior to the City Council hearing, the Board of Directors of the homeowners association circulated a petition specifically requesting that the rent stabilization ordinance not include a rent rollback provision. In fact, the association submitted to the City Council on the night of the hearing a petition signed by a majority of the Paradise Cove residents specifically making that request. In addition, the then city attorney Michael Jenkins, with Christi Hogin present as the assistant city attorney, specifically told the City Council that the entire ordinance, with the exception of the rent rollback provisions, were legally defensible. Mr. Schwerin neglected to point out this exception. Both mobile home park owners testified that if the rent rollback provision were not included, they would not sue the city. Nevertheless, by a vote of 4 to 1, including Walt Keller, Carolyn Van Horn and Missy Zeitsoff, the City Council passed an ordinance which had a seven-year rent rollback provision.
It was the rent rollback provision that led to the city being sued and it was the rent rollback provision which was thrown out by the courts, as predicted by both Mr. Jenkins and Ms. Hogin. I am sure Mr. Schwerin is one of the “usual suspects” out to attack anybody who would question the Keller/Van Horn no-growth majority. It would be refreshing if just once, Mr. Keller and Ms. Van Horn would step up to the plate and admit that they and Ms. Zeitsoff were the ones responsible for passing the ordinance which cost the city in excess of $2 million in lawsuit and settlement costs. Ms. Hogin has nothing to do with advocating that portion of the ordinance which led to the lawsuits and, based on clear constitution law, “lost” the case.
Richard N. Scott
Local independents react
In response to the closing last week of Crown Books, located in the Cross Creek shopping center, independent booksellers are stepping up service to accommodate the literary needs of Malibu.
“People ask me, ‘Aren’t you happy it’s closed?,'” says author and journalist Melody Beattie, owner of A Different Dimension bookstore. “No. I’m not. I don’t believe that anyone’s success should be built on another’s failure. It’s a particularly sad event. Crown definitely had a place in our community.”
Beattie, who opened shop last fall above Atlantis Clothing in Cross Creek, relocated to a larger storefront on Pacific Coast Highway near the PC Greens market. The store was founded as a center for publications, audio and visual media concerning recovery, spirituality and the healing arts.
“We will expand our offerings of the bestseller list; we’ll be expanding our fiction list as well,” says Beattie. “We’ll increase our salesmanship to help people find titles, whether out of print or in print.”
The store plans to act as a distributorship via the amazon.com online merchant, which catalogues 10 million titles at deep discount. The service guarantees home delivery within 72 hours and is free of shipping costs when five or more titles are ordered.
At Malibu Shaman in the Country Mart, owner Scott Sutphen was “quite shocked” at news of the Crown closure. “It’s amazing that we can’t support a traditional bookstore. I feel bad for Malibu.
“I can’t tell you how thankful I am to our loyal Malibu clientele. While Crown had a New Age section, it was limited. This definitely will increase our business.” The owner says he will continue to accommodate all requests for special orders.
Sutphen unveiled the Shaman 16 years ago and moved last summer into space vacated by Malibu Books & Co., which went out of business in the spring. The store’s focus is metaphysical, with extensive materials on meditation, hypnosis and Eastern wisdom.
With Crown’s departure, remaining avenues for Malibu readers include the campus bookstore at Pepperdine and newsstands near Hughes market and in the Indigo Cafe at Kanan.
Lookin’ for a home
The Natural Resources Defense Council has said it intends to sue the federal government for violations of the Endangered Species Act regarding the tidewater goby, a sometime resident of Malibu Lagoon.
The 2-inch, bottom-feeding fish has been found in California’s tidal streams and coastal wetlands since 1856, but since 1900, has disappeared from 74 percent of the lagoons south of Morro Bay. In fact, it had vanished from Malibu Lagoon but was reintroduced in 1990 from populations in the Ventura River.
Since then, it has been the subject of much debate among environmentalists, water-quality advocates and others.
Reconstruction of flood-damaged Malibu Creek Bridge, under emergency expedition order by Gov. Pete Wilson (January 1995), was stalled for a month to protect the goby during its March 15-April 15 breeding season — even as the National Marine Fisheries were protecting the migration of steelhead trout until June. (See related story on A8.)
Also, there is no consensus on how water-level management and pollution control efforts in the lagoon would affect the goby, which is known to be adversely impacted by groundwater overdrafting and discharge of agricultural and sewage effluents that cause algal blooms. All life stages of tidewater gobies are found at the upper end of lagoons in salinities less than 10 parts per thousand. The increased flow of salt water into the lagoon when the sand berm is breached (either during winter storms or artificially to lower the water table) could also affect the gobies.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt July 14, NRDC Senior Attorney Joel R. Reynolds said the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has failed to designate critical habitat for the tidewater goby, a violation of the ESA.
The service listed the goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) in 1994, but claimed critical habitat could not be determined because detailed information on the possible economic effects of such designation was not available at the time.
The ESA granted the service an extension of one year.
Named in the 60-day notice of intent to commence civil action are: the Secretary of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its director, regional director and field supervisor for the Ventura Field Office. Field Supervisor Diane K. Noda was unavailable for comment Tuesday as to whether the service had responded to the NRDC letter
Out, out damn dam
The Sierra Club has taken a stand supporting removal of Rindge Dam, so Malibu chapter members trekked to the site Sunday for a first-hand look.
The 100-foot-high concrete dam in Malibu Canyon, 2-1/2 miles from the ocean, was built in the 1920s to provide irrigation water but no longer serves that purpose because it is completely silted up.
“The dam doesn’t provide flood control, it’s just a waterfall,” commented Jim Edmondson, executive director of California Trout, explaining the ecological impact of the dam.
Malibu Creek contains the southernmost run of steelhead trout in North America — an estimated 10 to 75 fish — only in the 2-1/2 miles below Rindge Dam. Before the dam was constructed, an estimated population of 1,000 steelhead spawned in the 100-square-mile watershed of Malibu Creek. Last fall, the federal government listed the Southern steelhead as an endangered species.
Steelhead, named for their steel-blue coloring, are actually rainbow trout with a life cycle similar to that of a salmon. Born and reared in fresh water, as juveniles they migrate to estuaries, adjust to saltwater and then move on to the ocean. After spending one to three years foraging on the food sources of the Pacific Ocean, the adults return to their home rivers upstream to reproduce. Unlike salmon, steelhead do not necessarily die after spawning and may make the journey more than once.
“It’s the granddaddy of all the rainbow trout on this planet,” Edmondson said. DNA tests show the species to be more than 10,000 years old, the world’s most ancient rainbow trout. They have adapted to near-desert conditions. While most trout thrive in 68-degree water, the steelhead in Malibu Creek live in water that reaches 78 degrees in summer.
Rep. Brad Sherman spearheaded a 1998 appropriation of $100,000 to study the feasibility of removing Rindge Dam. In 1995, the Bureau of Reclamation completed a feasibility study. According to that study, excavating and backfilling the beaches would cost $17 million; excavating and backfilling the canyon would cost $12 million; and notching the dam would cost $3.5 million.
The dam holds one million cubic yards of sediment, of which 65 percent is suitable for beach fill. However, the silt levels need to be taken down slowly. “By notching, the dam is dismantled bit by bit, row by row, over 10 years,” Edmondson said. “You would take nine feet a year. It may take maybe 15 to 20 years of work.”
The concrete and rebar of the dam wall would be trucked out. Then in winter, the sediment would be washed down and deposited on the beach, without filling in the lagoon or creek, Edmondson said. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who would be responsible for the work, would do a sediment transport analysis.”
If the sediment is taken away too quickly, the trout eggs will be smothered, defeating the purpose of getting rid of the dam. “If the sedimentation is released [too quickly], then this would impact the lagoon. We don’t want to hurt any living things or anybody. We don’t want to fill up the lagoon,” Edmondson said. “But the fish are trapped in the worst possible place in Malibu creek. We want to get them out of there and up into the upper reaches of the creek. It’s in the upper seeplets and brush-covered tributaries that they thrive.”
Edmondson says he believes the issue has been “mischaracterized” and that logic tells us when the dam filled up in 15 years, the system carries a lot of sediment that would have moved through the creek without the dam.
“My sense was that they [Sierra Club members] saw the wisdom, function and logic of removing the dam to create a functioning river system again,” Edmondson said.
Marcia Hanscomb, executive committee member of Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, said their task force will meet to get everyone’s opinion, but that she feels the dam must come down.
“The solution that Caltrout has offered may be the best,” she said. “For historical purposes, it makes perfect sense to retain the 90-foot spillway and remove the dam. We like to find solutions that please everyone.”
Public Works director resigns
After creating Malibu’s Public Works Department and after nearly five years of overseeing the maintenance and repair of local roads and projects, Public Works Director John Clement is leaving. The Council announced Clement’s resignation at Monday’s meeting.
“The biggest problem I have is leaving the public works department staff and the city’s staff,” said Clement. “They’re like family to me.” Clement described the entire city staff as “passionate, caring professionals, more than I’ve seen in my 30-year career.”
Clement will leave Sept. 28 to become Public Works director of Santa Cruz. “The opportunity in Santa Cruz is just too great,” said Clement. “It’s a full-service city with a staff of 180 and probably close to a $40 million budget. It’s an older community, so it has a nice mix of the old, even to the Victorian, to the brand new. If I had a choice of any place to go, that’s the place I’d choose. It’s very, very exciting, but the challenge is really intimidating, too.” As for his motivation to leave Malibu, Clement said, “It was time.”
Recruitment for his position will begin immediately. “Good public works directors are always hard to find,” said City Manager Harry Peacock. “I don’t think we’ll get anybody on board until after the first of the year.”
To ease the transition, and to help take care of business during the recruitment process, Peacock said he will look for an interim replacement from a pool of retired professionals. This is similar to what he did when filling the city’s finance director spot. “It takes a couple of months just to get the word out,” Peacock said.
Although Clement will be officially on staff until the end of September, he will be spending two weeks vacationing in Australia.
Also at Monday’s meeting, 28 speakers signed up to voice their opinions about proposed speed tables on Point Dume. Speed tables were developed to address concerns of fire departments over traditional speed bumps. Speed tables can be crossed at higher speeds than the more prominent speed bumps, which results in less delay for emergency vehicles. Speed tables are 3 inches high and 22 inches long and typically cause motorists to lower their speeds to about 30 mph. Staff had recommended installing speed tables along the entire length of Fernhill Drive and Dume Drive to better manage traffic speeds 24 hours a day. Installation costs were to be borne by residents.
“Something must be done to slow this traffic down,” said Ryan Embree, who, like many Point residents, said he fears for the school children in the area.
“The speed humps would be the 24-hour policeman,” said resident Margaret Rollens.
Some residents told the council they moved to Point Dume because of its rural environment. “I bought it for its rural, natural feel,” said Pamela Ridley, who said speed humps and signs would be “citifying our community.”
“If we want to enhance the rural nature, we would be killing it with speed humps,” agreed Sam Hall Kaplan.
“Speed humps don’t give tickets,” said Embree. “They don’t slow people down. They just go faster over the humps.”
Other residents spoke against the speed tables for reasons of inconvenience and fear the tables would lengthen response time of emergency vehicles.
“If it’s your wife who is turning blue or your child who is choking, 10 seconds is a long time,” agreed Point resident Jim Star.
Thirty-year Point Dume resident Frank Basso said his daughter (now 27) was hit by a car on the Point while riding her bike. “This problem hasn’t gone away,” said Basso. “I think the fire department will learn to work with them.”
The council voted against installing speed tables 3-2 (Walt Keller and Carolyn Van Horn in favor). “I was concerned about the emergency response,” said Councilman Harry Barovsky. “The fire department said they would slow down emergency response. As far as I’m concerned, every second is essential.”
The council voted instead to increase traffic control by the Sheriff’s Department, to begin immediately. “The best way to slow people down is by police presence,” said Barovsky. The council also directed staff to explore alternative ways to lessen the problem.
In a separate agenda item, the council directed staff to send a letter to the Metro Transit Authority, requesting that bus service through the Point Dume neighborhood be reduced. The letter will ask the MTA to eliminate service of Bus Route 434 before 7:30 a.m., after 6:30 p.m., and between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Residents had previously voiced concerns of empty, sometimes speeding buses going through their neighborhood. Clement said a ridership study, conducted by MTA staff, showed there really wasn’t a demand. “They’re virtually empty, or maybe one passenger at best,” said Clement. “Why have a big, 30-foot bus running around in a residential area?”
The council also finalized changes to the city’s zoning legislation. The Planning Commission had approved a proposal reducing the minimum size of multifamily units from 800 square feet to 400 square feet, roughly the size of a two-car garage. The council reasoned this would allow development of efficiency- and one-bedroom units and help the city meet requirements for affordable housing.
“You could have six people living in that, and you’re creating a slum,” said Keller, who amended the motion to keep the 800-square-foot minimum.
Mayor Joan House proposed a minimum size of 750 square feet, which compromise the council approved.
Parking rules for multifamily units were settled: Studio and efficiency units must have two parking spaces per unit, one-bedroom units must have three.
Single-family zoning standards were relaxed to allow maximum front-yard setbacks to be 65 feet or 20 percent of the lot depth, whichever is less. Currently, setbacks must be 20 percent of the lot depth without any limit. The change will give owners of larger lots more room on which to build.
The meeting lasted until nearly 1 a.m., the council continuing the agenda two nights.
