Malibu West Homeowner Group Ponders Park Litigation

• Debate over Controversial Trancas Canyon Park Plans Has Divided Area Residents

BY BILL KOENEKER

As the Malibu Surfside News goes to press, members of the Malibu West Homeowners Association are wrangling over a worst case scenario of whether they see no alternative to litigation to get the city to rethink its plans for a controversial seven-acre multi-use park on a 13.6-acre site at 6050 Trancas Canyon Road.
Preliminary reports from those involved with the group indicate that the vote taken over a several day period favors legal action by a close margin. These reports also indicated that negotiations with a prospective counsel were underway Tuesday afternoon.
A public workshop to explore the possibility of modification to plans approved by the Malibu City Council for Trancas Canyon Park will be hosted by the Parks and Recreation Department on Thursday, April 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Malibu City Hall.
The session is now being called a “staff workshop” by city officials. “It is not intended to be a council meeting,” said City Manager Jim Thorsen. “If council members decide to go, generally there are not more than two. If the mayor comes, he may make a few opening remarks.”
Thorsen said planners and the consultants would attend the session.
The staff-directed workshop was scheduled after three council members at the April 13 meeting voted to allow residents another opportunity to review the specifics of the park plans and provide input on possible revisions, although it appears unlikely that there is a council majority for major changes in the park’s more controversial elements or support for consideration of some of the more recent proposals for the site, such as a solar farm.
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich had made the motion at last week’s hearing for the workshop saying the meeting, held on March 26, where a select handful of individuals along with Councilmember Sharon Barovsky made proposed revisions to the park, did not offer enough public participation.
A majority of the council members made it clear the upcoming workshop could include public comments about the revisions, tentatively approved by the council concerning grading and reduction of the size of the dog park and tot-lot, but also suggestions or recommendations about any other aspects of the design of the park, which has become increasingly controversial and is described by some as splitting the Malibu West neighborhood.
Some park supporters quickly criticized Conley Ulich’s motion as a stalling tactic with one parent telling the council member she “had betrayed the children of Malibu.”
When asked to comment last week on how the staff is arranging the workshop, Conley Ulich said she considered the meeting more of a “community workshop,” rather than a “staff workshop.”
It appears that if the meeting remains scheduled for next Thursday, the only two council members available to attend are Conley Ulich and Councilmember Jefferson Wagner, both of whom voted against approval of the original park plans.
Conley Ulich said she did not see why the workshop had to be held so soon since she was told the park revisions would come back to the council on May 26 instead of May 11, as previously announced.
Conley Ulich had stipulated in her motion that the workshop should take place before the May 11 meeting under the impression that was the date for council action.
It also remains unclear why the staff has determined the session will be a staff workshop, which does not have the same public noticing requirements.
The Brown Act prohibits more than two council members meeting on an item if the meeting, hearing or workshop is not duly noticed.
Also puzzling is the staff scheduling a meeting without apparently consulting the council members about previous engagements as the Malibu Surfside News has learned.
In its present form, the park planned for the city-owned property on Trancas Canyon Road includes a multi-sport athletic field, picnic area, playground, basketball court, dog park, restroom building and parking for 64 cars.
The park proposal has generated major friction between residents of the Malibu West area. Park critics say adjacent residents would be adversely impacted by the traffic, noise, loitering, pollution, water consumption and other issues the park raises.
The amount of grading required by the plans is also a major source of contention. Critics say extensive grading and landform alteration is only being allowed because the city is both the applicant and the permitting agency and it is granted itself more that would be allowed to applicants in other circumstances.