School District Plan to Fence Off Campus Raises Fire Concerns

• Residents Cite Some of the Problems that Have Taken Place and Could Become Even Worse

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

Some residents of Malibu Park are asking whether they will have to add bolt cutters to their wildfire preparedness kits, if a Measure BB funded plan for new perimeter fencing around the Malibu High School campus moves ahead as planned.
The new fencing would lock down the largely open campus, potentially impacting pedestrian and equestrian access during emergencies and on weekends, when the school’s athletic facilities are a popular destination.
Concerned Malibu Park residents reportedly contacted the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District before the Jan. 14 meeting when the funds were allocated, but staff appeared unresponsive when member Ralph Mechur raised concerns about the emergency access issue.
“When the fires do come through, which they occasionally do, unfortunately, people bring their livestock down to our campus,” Mechur said. “Will they still be able to do that? I don’t know how they did it but I just want to make sure that if people have to bring their horses down to a safe place and that’s the campus, will they continue to be able to do that?”
Project consultant Tom Tomeoni replied, “There will be gates but they’ll be closed.” He clarified that “we do have gates where actually some of our children come through, so we are trying to work with the sites to kind of make an arrangement where those gates as part of the BB program remain and be available, be open.”
Mechur asked, “If there is a fire on a Saturday night and people need to bring their horses onto the campus, to the field, are they going to have to cut locks?”
The district’s chief financial officer Jan Maez replied, “If it happened on a weekend and the fire department didn’t have access, then locks might have to be cut for an emergency such as that.”
Mechur requested that staff take the issue seriously. The BB funds for the fencing project were approved as part of the consent portion of the agenda.
Some local fire safety activists have described the fencing plan as ironic. The campus was included as a community fire safety resource at a recent workshop sponsored by federal, state and local agencies.
“It has been standard operating procedure in Malibu Park for decades that, in the event of a wildfire, residents evacuate their families and animals to the open school grounds on Morning View Drive where there are resources and personnel,” Malibu Park resident and C.E.R.T. member Marshall Thompson wrote in an email to the Malibu Surfside News. “This is mentioned in every single meeting that takes up the issue of public safety, wildfires and evacuation plans.”
Thompson, together with city council candidate Steve Scheinkman and other Malibu Park residents established an organization called the Malibu Park Safety Coalition in 2009 to address fire and traffic issues in the west Malibu community.
“Fences need to be permeable for the wildlife, and there needs to be access from the back and sides in case of wildfire,” wrote Malibu Park resident Judi Hutchinson. “This area has many horses and other domestic animals that need to be taken down to the school in case of fire.”
“The district doesn’t talk to us or listen to us,” said another resident, who asked that her name not be used. “They don’t talk to the city either and they’re exempt from local control. It’s like having an Iron Curtain country for a neighbor. Someone should tell the school board that the Cold War is over.”
According to the staff report, the new plan includes “replacement of existing perimeter or interior fencing, existing gates, [and] erosion control along the west side of the property boundary.”
The fencing project was not part of the campus’s BB plan, according to the staff report. It was added “after discussion with the site administrators and district safety staff...to provide safety for the students and to allow the administrators to adequately control the movement of students within different portions of the campus.”
According to the staff report, the fencing project will also require retaining walls in some areas. “During the planning of this work, significant erosion was noted in several areas on the west property boundary, abutting several residential properties. The erosion has undermined the existing fencing, leaving large gaps under the fabric that a person can easily pass under. These areas will need new retaining walls to stabilize those slopes for the new fencing to maintain its effectiveness as a perimeter barrier and prevent future erosion.”
Concerns raised by residents over whether the proposed fencing would be wildlife permeable were dismissed by the district’s staff, despite the fact that the residents claim the western part of the perimeter that is now scheduled to receive the new retaining walls “to stabilize those slopes for the new fencing to maintain its effectiveness as a perimeter barrier” is documented ESHA.
The City of Malibu’s Land Use Plan specifies that “in or adjacent to ESHA, fencing must be sited and designed to allow wildlife to pass through.” However, a resolution passed by the Board of Education in July of 2009 exempts the district from municipal code.
Reports provided as part of the ongoing effort to obtain athletic field lighting that found no evidence of raptors, such as owls, at the campus have been harshly criticized by the California Coastal Commission, which went on record in October saying that the studies were inaccurate.