Coastal Commission approves supervisor’s request for tow-away signs on PCH near Sunset Mesa
The perennial problem is extremely dangerous, Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff’s Capt. Jennifer Seetoo said on Oct. 10, noting that for years, large recreational vehicles have parked for extended times on both the land side and ocean side of the stretch of highway near the Sunset Mesa community in unincorporated Los Angeles County between Coastline Drive and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
“The owners of the RVs are illegally tapping into the Southern California Edison pole to run electricity to their vehicles — this is very dangerous!” Seetoo said, adding that a Caltrans team cleaning up the area found propane tanks and evidence of the RV owners cooking with an open flame outside in a high fire danger zone.
“Caltrans has picked up feces and urine all over the place — the RV residents are using the storm drains as porta potties and the drains go all the way into the ocean!” Seetoo bemoaned.
Walking with the Caltrans team, Seetoo noted the stench of urine as she videoed the many bags of garbage, cigarette butts, and feces the team had removed.
Armed with data she collected from residents, Caltrans, a fire inspector, and a health inspector — all of which demonstrated the RVs problem needed to be addressed urgently — Seeto prevailed upon LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who interceded by filing a motion with the Board of Supervisors “calling for the state’s partnership to address the issue immediately through the new signs while pursuing alignment with the parking regulations in nearby Malibu and Pacific Palisades.” Her motion passed unanimously.
Addressing a fire, health, and roadway hazard — towing signs are coming
“California Coastal Commission staff have agreed with Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath’s request to update parking restrictions along the unincorporated portion of PCH near the community of Sunset Mesa.” Horvath’s Oct. 10 press release announced. “The new signs strengthen parking regulations, allowing for vehicles to be towed that violate posted signage restricting parking from 12 to 2 a.m. and 2 to 4 a.m.”
With Coastal Commission approval, LA County Public Works will install 26 new signs, Horvath stated, an action thatwill give the Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol an important enforcement tool.
The backstory
“Having the RVs on the highway right under my home has been a problem for several years,” said Clarence Chapman, a Sunset Mesa resident. “My fire insurance company contacted me and said they were canceling my insurance because of the RV residents cooking near the brush, which can serve as fuel for a fire!”
Unfortunately, the insurer’s concerns were realized when some RV residents’ actions set fire to the hillside recently, a distressed Chapman noted, providing images of a slew of firefighters fighting a blaze.
“In 2023, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported eight calls for fires, of which four were confirmed in this area,” Horvath stated in her motion to the Board of Supervisors.
Everyone in the neighborhood is highly concerned, Chapman stated, adding, “I’ve observed gasoline generators right on the highway with 10-gallon gas containers and propane tanks — that is literally risking having what is tantamount to a bomb going off along the highway! Allowing these conditions to continue is abject negligence — when there is a dangerous condition and the homeless set fire to brush in our bluff this is a demonstrated hazard, not just a possible hazard. I don’t know how else to say it!”
Elaborating, he said, “I’ve also observed prostitution and I have had to call the police about a lot of tires on the bluff — it is absolutely terrible to allow this to happen!”
Chapman notes that he and his neighbors have spoken to Seetoo, Regional Planning, Caltrans, CHP and the homeless coalition, all in an effort to get the problems addressed.
The Coastal Commission’s approving of towing away improperly parked vehicles will be of help, Chapman noted, taking special care to state, “Our whole community sincerely appreciates the efforts of [Sheriff’s Capt.] Seetoo to address these problems.”
Seetoo agrees that adding the towing signs is a great step. However, she stated, “Our clearing out the RVs and the towing signs are not the end of this problem.”
Chapman noted that when this reporter first interviewed him in 2019 for an article concerning the RVs’ parking problem, “The Supreme Court did not address the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Martin v. City of Boise, so it was unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping on a sidewalk or other public area when there aren’t enough shelter beds or housing available as an alternative.”
However, he notes that on June 28, the high court effectively reversed the Boise decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, another homeless encampment case wherein the court held that the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause does not prohibit municipalities from enforcing generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property.
Chapman notes that some residents of the RVs maintain that they are not homeless — rather, they state that the RVs are their homes and they intend to stay there indefinitely. Seetoo opines that the RV problem, “isn’t about the homeless — rather, it’s about sanitation, highway safety, and fire hazards.”
No matter how one defines the issue, for now, there will soon be towing signs informing RV residents that their vehicles will be subject to towing. Chapman and his neighbors hope that soon, overnight camping will be prohibited in the area.
As Horvath’s motion noted, “In 2017, in response to Sunset Mesa resident concerns about parking issues along PCH, the County initiated efforts to enact parking regulations on both the north and south sides of PCH. After two years of working through multiple appeals through the Regional Planning Commission and getting approval from Caltrans, the north side of the road (landward) of PCH was approved for 13 signs indicating no parking from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. and the south side (seaward) of PCH was approved for 13 signs to be posted indicating no parking 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.”
Commenting on that decision by the Coastal Commission, Chapman notes, as did Horvath’s motion, in the City of Los Angeles on the landward side of PCH, no parking is allowed at any time. On the seaward side, no parking is allowed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in some areas and no parking is allowed at any time in other sections.
However, Chapman and his neighbors advocate that the authorities also prohibit overnight camping in the area, as is done in Los Angeles and other parts of the Southern California coastline. In that regard, presumably, that is why the press release states that the placement of towing signs is being done, “while pursuing alignment with the parking regulations in nearby Malibu and Pacific Palisades.” Addressing that request by the community, Chapman said, “We just want the same thing that the City of Malibu has north of Topanga and the City of LA has south of Sunset.”
