State Agency Targets Illegal Signs and
Encroachments in Malibu
• Coastal Commission Enforcement Takes
Aim at Counterfeit ‘No Parking’ Postings
A regional Coastal Commission
enforcement official says Malibu residents who have put up
their own, official-looking “No Parking” signs may
expect enforcement action soon. And one of the
biggest offenders may be the City of Malibu itself.
Pat Veesart, senior enforcement team
leader a the Coastal Commission’s Ventura office, said
his office received numerous complaints last summer from people
about a growing rash of ‘No Parking’ signs at
several Malibu public access points, including
Lechusa, Broad, Little Dume, Escondido and Latigo beaches.
An even bigger problem may be the
wholesale taking of public streets for landscaping, walls or
private parking places in some areas, he said. “Public
land has been absconded with by private property
owners.”
Some of the worst abuses may be along the
west end of Broad Beach Drive, near where the state has
obtained easements to allow public foot access to Lechusa
Beach, but where on-street parking has been eliminated over the
decades by resident encroachment, Veesart said.
Volunteer surveyors have measured the
public right of way on Broad Beach Road and found trees,
mailboxes, private driveways and stairways encroaching
onto public property. The situation, Veesart said, is
particularly bad west of Bunnie Drive, where the public road
suddenly narrows even though the right-of-way line does not.
“These are the only parking places
available to access the beach that the people of the State
of California paid a lot to acquire,” he said
Friday, as he looked at rock walls and other permanent
structures that extended at least 15 feet over the right
of way line and onto Broad Beach Road, a former state highway
with a broad right of way.
“All along Broad Beach Road there are
a lot of parking places that look private,” said Jenny
Price, a Los Angeles resident who frequently uses Malibu
beaches, accessways and parks. Price runs an advocacy group
called LA Urban Rangers that offers tours of publicly-owned
areas along the Malibu coast, places that some oceanfront
homeowners consider their own.
Last Friday, Veesart showed the Malibu
Surfside News more than a dozen homes along Broad Beach Road
where walls intruded onto the public road, and where
landscaping or pavement was used to make a public parking place
look like private property.
“If you park here, the homeowner will
come out and tell you ‘you’re on private
property,’ and because it looks like it, a deputy would
reasonably cite you or tow your car away,” he said.
Veesart said no one at the commission has
any problem with what he called “no harm, no foul”
landscaping, walls or staircases on the side of the road,
unless they block potential parking or convey a message that a
piece of road that the State of California bought in 1931 from
the Rindge family has become private.
The enforcement official said he plans to
meet soon with City of Malibu officials over official-looking
“No Parking” signs set up all over the western end
of Malibu. He said he is particularly concerned about several
new signs banning parking near Geoffrey’s Restaurant that
were not posted by the California Department of Transportation,
which owns and controls Highway 1.
“These signs are right next to the
Escondido accessway, and they have the effect of banning
parking on the publicly-owned road shoulder. Caltrans tells me
they were installed by the City of Malibu at the request
of homeowners, but I don’t know who put them up.
“If they affect access to the
publicly-owned beach, then a coastal development permit must be
applied for, noticed and granted by the responsible
city,” Veesart said, even thought the responsible
agency within city limits is the City of Malibu itself.
“The implication is ‘OK,
you public jerks, there are only two parking places for you
here and no more,’” Price said.
Veesart said ‘No Parking’ zones
near Point Dume may greatly exceed what is permissible under a
nearly-10-year-old agreement that got Malibu off the hook for
violating coastal access rules. Under that
compromise, a small parking area was built on
Cliffside Drive for surfers and flower lovers to enjoy the
adjacent state park.
In exchange, the city removed boulders it
had dumped on the public land to prevent parking, and was
allowed to ban parking in the immediate area.
Since then, tow-away zones have extended
more than a half mile on three nearby streets.
Veesart said he would contact the city to
determine if the signs were officially installed, and
check with commission lawyers to see if they are legal.
“I have the feeling that the majority
of Malibu residents use the beach and do not favor private
owners taking over public property,” Veesart said.
But he said the city, like all cities along the coast, must
follow the letter of the law as drawn up in the Local Coastal
Plan that was adopted at the order of the state legislature.
