City to Try to Ban New Camping on Public Lands

• Council Bows to Resident Pressures in the Wake of Two Major Wildfires

By Bill Koeneker

In what may have been one of the most raucous sessions in recent memory, emotions ran strong at Wednesday’s Malibu City Council meeting when members openly responded to public pressure and unanimously voted to seek a ban on all new camping within the city.

The issues of wildfire and public camping became interwoven—despite all data to the contrary—in the wake of two major conflagrations in as many months, providing impetus for a concerted political campaign to hamstring council efforts at a city-state compromise on increased camping on public lands.

At the same time the council voted to seek a Local Coastal Program Amendment policy to prohibit camping in open spaces and commercial recreational land, the members approved a scaled-back version of the LCPA sought by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy for its park and trails plan.

City council members readily acknowledge that this issue could once again provoke a showdown between the city and powerful state agencies, including the SMMC and the California Coastal Commission, which must approve the city’s request for a LCPA.

SMMC Executive Director Joe Edmiston, who appeared disappointed and angry at the outcome, summed up the current situation when he told the council, “When you say Malibu is up against the state, you have laid down the gauntlet.”

Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who made the motion for the ban that nevertheless includes limited disabled user camping at Ramirez Canyon Park, said the city was taking on a fight and would need the support of the public, especially when the matter is before the Coastal Commission.

“What the consequences are, if we lose, [is that] Mr. Edmiston will have what he wants without the city [having a say on it],” she said.

Councilmember Ken Kearsley, who stressed that the mission of the SMMC and the CCC is to allow public access to parkland, said the city’s efforts were a way to try to limit camping—to get a handle on it.

Acknowledging that the council is backing down from its original stance and is now seeking a ban because of public pressure, Kearsley said, “Now you are asking us to take a crap shoot by saying no to camping. Now we are going to have it out of here and move it to the Coastal Commission, and then it will go to the courts. It will be up to a judge.”

Late Tuesday, the evening before the meeting, Edmiston put a revised plan on the table that was outlined by the city attorney. This proposal included no camping in Charmlee Park, camping in Corral Canyon and Escondido Canyon, and increased activity at Ramirez Canyon Park. The SMMC head had also said he would waive the timetable for action if the council wanted to consider his revised request, but the members passed this up.

The city council’s change of position is being interpreted as a victory for Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, who was, from the outset, the lone dissenter on attempts to negotiate overnight camping and repeatedly called for a camping ban. On Wednesday, she praised her colleagues for their turnabout on the thorny issue.

Councilmember Andy Stern said he could support the measure because it kept policy determination in the hands of the city. He noted that, if the council had turned down the LCPA, the matter would have gone straight to the state Coastal Commission without further input from the city.

Edmiston told the council that they had not really banned camping since it is taking place right now in Corral Canyon at the RV facility on Pacific Coast Highway. He said the difference is that the cost at the RV park is $40 or $50 a night, and that means camping is only available for those who can afford that.

Conley Ulich responded that there are over 300 campsites in or near Malibu where camping experiences are available for as little as $15 a day. She said, “We welcome people to Malibu. We just need to educate them [about the dangers of fire].”