Coastal Fury Over Point Dume Parking Issue May Spark Strategic City Retreat
Written by 991KBU on February 7, 2020
Malibu may retreat from efforts to build a vehicle gate at the Point Dume parking lot …
But it my be too late to avoid a big fight with the California Coastal Commission.
The city manager is recommending that the city withdraw its plans to add the vehicle gate at the Point Dume Nature Reserve … the 12-space parking lot up on the point.
Residents in the area have asked for the gate to prevent late night use of the parking lot … which is not supposed to be used after sunset.
Similar parking lot gates are used by California State Parks and the county … where parks are supposed to be closed at night.
This whole battle traces back to the city trying to eliminate public parking at Point Dume way back in 1997 … when the city dumped large boulders on the public street next to a state park.
That’s when coastal commissioners imposed the requirements on the city.
The proposal for the vehicle gate was one step too far for the Coastal Commission staff …
They have issued a 20-page report listing a litany of violations …. by the city and the residents of the area … that have resulted in public parking spaces being eliminated near the beach.
Rocks and trees planted on road shoulders.
Parking eliminated on some streets.
Ad the city has eliminated the shuttle bus that it promised to run … forever … to shuttle beach users from public parking down to the point.
The city called that the ghost shuttle … virtually no one ever rode it.
And they pointed out that California State PArks allowed them to end the unused shuttle service when the 10 year contract expired.
Coastal pointed out that the promise to run the bus was with the Coastal Commission …. and they said the city’s failure to offer the free shuttle means the city is required to immediately construct 22 parking spaces along streets at Point Dume.
All this gas prompted the city manager to recommend that the parking gate plan be dropped.
She says the city staff has other priorities … and city staff does not have the resources necessary to move this project forward.
The city manager recommends that the City Council withdraw the application fo the gates.
But the item taken to the Coastal Commission was not filed by the city … it was appealed by two Malibu residents… as well as two coastal commissioners.
So it may too little … too late.
Coastal is now on the case …. wanting to know why the city failed to install the 22 parking spaces it promised more than 20 years ago.
