Council Junks County Plan To Park Homeless RVs At Zuma Beach – But Where To Park Them?
Written by 991KBU on May 12, 2020
That trial balloon for opening a safe parking area for homeless people on Zuma Beach got shot down in a big way last night.
The Malibu city council voted 5-0 to reject a proposal to amend the city zoning codes to allow overnight parking anywhere in the city.
The Los Angeles County government had wanted to build fences at Zuma Beach Tower 14 … to fence off the compound that would be used from 9 PM until sunrise for persons sleeping in their cars.
Reva Feldman … the city manager … says the city council had told her to come up with a place for safe overnight parking for homeless persons.
And the county proposal … to put such a lot on Zuma Beach … needed to go to the city council.
NEWSCART 75588 FELDMAN ZUMA
“Our intent is never to put something on an agenda without vetting it through the public … and while I think this item confused a lot of people … I wanted to give some context and background to what we were doing.”
The city council agenda that was published last week did not mention Zuma Beach as the county’s preferred site for a homeless car corral.
Word only leaked out late Friday … and when that news was broadcast … there was a universal groundswell of opposition.
But Feldman says there was an urgent need to get rid of the RVs parked in eastern Malibu … before the pandemic broke out.
In the coastal commission staff has made it clear to Malibu … this city has to find a place for those RVs to park within Malibu …
And that is even though those supposedly homeless people inside are not from Malibu.
Feldman says the pandemic resulted in all beach parking banned on P C H … but those vans and RVs will be back when the county allows beach parking to resume.
NEWSCART 75598 FELDMAN ZUMAZONING
“I was trying to find the lineup are ducks so that when we came forward to the council to have another robust discussion about possible locations we could act as quickly as possible.”
Apparently the city manager and the city council were blindsided by a Berlin Wall of opposition to any new fences on the beach … any overnight parking on the beach … and use of any of Zuma Beach as a homeless parking site.
That really rankled people in Malibu.
One councilman last night held up a list of 300 plus emails he got from Malibu residents once news of the Zumaplan leaked out Friday.
Zuma Beach was not on the agenda.Councilman Ric Mulen was surprised.
NEWSCART 75603 MULLEN
“I was very impressed with … they went for the most part unique emails.
“They were not the cut-and-paste of one person, there were some common themes but they were very well-thought-out.
“And even the ones that were very ardent and passionate in their message were very tactfully delivered … and I think that whoever organize this did a very good job.”
By all appearances there was not any persons who organized this … it was a groundswell of popular opinion.
By a 5-0 vote … the city council last night removed Zuma Beach from the immediate list of possibilities for almost parking area.
But given that groundswell of opposition to putting homeless persons on any beach … it might be safe to say that concept is dead.
Feldman says discussions are continuing on setting up some type of homeless services at the abandoned L A county courthouse …. next to library.
Two nearby residents from the Civic Center condos appeared before the city council last night to oppose that plan as well.
