Conservancy Plans for LCP Override to Be
Aired July 14
• Overnight Camping in Three Areas Is
Key to Package
To the apparent chagrin and surprise of
Malibu city officials, the executive
director of the California Coastal
Commission has determined that the controversial plan of
the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
that includes overnight camping can be treated as a
Local Coastal Program amendment override.
The Malibu City Council has scheduled a
public hearing on Monday, July 14, on the matter.
City planners had submitted an LCP
amendment to the commission that did not include overnight
camping and other changes that were bitterly opposed by SMMC
head Joe Edmiston, who had threatened to proceed with an
override.
The city’s position is that because
SMMC and the Mountains Recreation Conservation
Authority invoked the LCP override provision, it allows
the Coastal Commission to consider whether
to amend the city’s LCP “outside the usual
procedures and approve the ‘Malibu Parks Public
Access Enhancement Plan Overlay District’ proposed
by the SMMC and MRCA.”
That plan calls for overnight campsite
facilities within park boundaries at Ramirez Canyon Park,
Escondido Canyon Park and Corral Canyon Park, a comprehensive
program for acquiring and improving the Coastal Slope Trail and
extensive uses at Ramirez Canyon Park at the SMMC’s
headquarters.
City Attorney Christi Hogin has indicated
that according to the commission’s regulations, the
city may make its own determination whether the LCP override
provisions apply and whether to amend the LCP to approve
the proposal or otherwise make recommendations to the
commission on the proposal. She has indicated that is
the purpose of the city council meeting.
The overnight camping provisions, a former
compromise that included overnight camping at Charmlee Park
brokered by municipal officials, inflamed the public, who
subsequently demanded in packed council chambers that
council members drop any references, policies or provisions to
overnight camping and battle it out with the SMMC and CCC over
the issue.
The council reluctantly did so with some
council members predicting the battle was just beginning rather
than ending.
