Stripped-Down Westward Bch Rd Project Recommended By Pub Works Commission, But Not Pub Safety Comm
Written by 991KBU on February 24, 2022
KBUU NEWS THU FEB 24
A four-hour-long meeting yesterday about Westward Beach Road ended with two city commissions basically throwing up their hands in a split decision ..
After hours of chopping possibilities from the project … the Public Safety and Public Works commissions deadlocked. The Public Works people decide on a recommendation … and the Public Safety people deadlocked.
The recommendation … for the city council … is to … basically … repave what is there now … repair the road shoulder that has been buried by sand …. add a few feet of width if possible but staying 8 feet back from the edge of the city right of way line in the sand … maybe speed humps … but nothing else concrete.
No sidewalk … no beachfront walk … no bike lane. And .. for now …. no wooden promenade either.
Building a street without provisions for bicycles and pedestrians would be a violation of terms in the city’s grant from Metro … so far … 150 thousand dollars has been spent for planning the multi-use beachfront road with sand wall and sidewalk … which has gone down in flames.
Malibu will likely have to pay that money back to Metro.
Many residents of Point Dume say the project should just be abandoned,.
Philippe Browning spokes at last night’s combined session of the city Public Works and Public Safety commissions: :
NEWSCART A73123. WWARD BROWNING
“It seems to me that – until there was a study done that says this was the number of vehicular and other pedestrian incidents … Antil that is put forward and tilted to describe a true need for either parking or a pedestrian walkway … I think the projects basic premise is ill founded. I have lived in the area now for almost two years right next to that zone.”
In a marathon four-hour meeting yesterday … the city Public Works and Public Safety commissions hashed over various plans for bikelanes … angle parking … walkways on the inland sid … a boardwalk on the sand …
One by one … the commission rejected one thing after another.
One propsioal was for something called a roll up sidewalk … a wooden walkway that could be placed along the road …jn the sand … and rolled up for storms,.
One. Commissioner … Doug Stewart ….said he’s seen the roll up sidewalks used on Catalina island.
NEWSCART A 73125 WWARD DS
“It’s a constant maintenance item to keep somebody sweeping the sand off the road because they sink into the sand the sand blows over them. And honestly if a storm is coming… Who is going to roll up a quarter mile… a half mile of roll-up beach walk?
The final recommendation to the city council was to simply resurface Westward Beach Road .,.. and widen it a little bit towards the ocean … where the sand has covered or eroded the original roadway pavement.
That really disappointed some of the commissioners …. who pointed out that Metro will not accept funding a project that does not include bicycle and pedestrian features.
Commissioners Brian Merrick and Chris Frost.
NEWSCART A73124 WWARD BMCF
MERRICK: “There is no pedestrian there’s no bike there’s no nothing in this in the set up… So… I mean we’re not gonna see this again I think.”
FROST: “Frankly … I’m a public safety commissioner … and frankly we addressed very little about the Public Safety issue on this road. “
After stripping all of the bicycle and walkway items …. the commissions also adopted a statement to the city council.
They say the repaving option should be tested for eight months … and then the bike and pedestrian issue should be revisited.
But that will probably mean that Metro will want its 150 thousand dollar planning grant back … and it probably also means the city will not get Metro construction money for the project.
====
