Who Gets To Use PCH? Confused Answers From Caltrans and Sheriff’s Office

Confusion and unhappiness this morning … as Pacific Coast Highway is NOT reopened to traffic for the morning commute. 

No matter what Caltrans says.

The state agency put out a news release late yesterday afternoon … a news release that erroneously proclaimed that PCH would reopen for Malibu residents … today. 

Buried four paragraphs into the news release was the fact that passes would be needed. 

Nowhere did it say who was eligible to get these PCH passes …. Or how. Or where to get them.

Buried 13 paragraphs into the news release was the fact that the road would be closed to general traffic … 

That didn’t stop some local politicians to put out that the road would be reopened to general traffic. 

And that caused some late-in-the-day wrangling between City Hall … Caltrasn … and the Lost  Hills Sheriff’s Station. 

The sheriff’s office maintained all day that only people with passes will get onto PCH today … and that only residents of the burned out areas will be given the passes. 

An LAPD checkpoint on the east .. and sheriff’s department checkpoint on the west … will turn away anyone without a pass.

Passes are available in West Los Angeles at 9am today .. and at Malibu City Hall starting last 10 am.

Last week’s expired passes will be honored. 

The sheriff’s department says their passes will only be given to people whose house burned in the fire … and their contractors.

They point out that PCH has one lane, a 25 MOPH speed limit, frequent blockages of that lane by construction workers, no functioning traffic lights. 

The road does not have enough capacity to open it to all traffic, if they do that, it will gridlock.

But gridlock is the result of keeping it closed.

Last night … the overload on the northbound 405 … caused by the closure of PCH … was epic.

Backed up onramps caused eastbound traffic on city streets in Los Angeles to clog. 

Streets like Santa Monica Boulevard were at a dead stop in West LA …. 45 minutes to get from Barrington to Sdepulevda… because cars and trucks could not get onto the 405.  It was a three hour drive from West LA to Malibu last night.

The loss of PCH to the regional transpiration network is causing backups all the way from LAX. As of this morning … the policy was that commuters going through the road closure area would not get passes.

And as of this morning ,… that is all subject to change.

But we can report … that the official word is. … PCH is not open to general commuting traffic.

But the situation is fluid … and your mileage may vary. 

Planning Commission To Consider Fire Changes To City Codes

What will the city’s policy’s be towards rebuilds of fire destroyed homes and businesses???
The Planning Commission will grapple with that tonight. 

And we are beginning to see some of the policy changes being presented by the city staff.

For example … the staff plan is to allow replacement structures if they are for the same use as the destroyed structure.

The replacement structure may not exceed either the floor area, height, or bulk of the destroyed structure by more than ten (10) percent.

The city will allow mechanized equipment or temporary shoring on the beach necessary to construct the replacement structure is allowed.

But those machines may not enter the intertidal zone and/or extend beyond the previously existing primary development area footprint, whichever extends out more seaward. B. 

An onsite wastewater treatment system (OWTS) that was damaged or destroyed by a disaster may be replaced and improved provided unless it is massively bigger … on a case by case basis.

And the self contained sewage system may not extend seaward of the previously existing primary development area footprint. 

And the city wants all foundation systems, utilities, and driveways to be built in compliance with all applicable state and local laws and regulations.

That may be very hard for some fire victims.

Local laws and statewide building codes are much stronger than what was in effect when most of Malibu was built … decades ago.

This ends that nearly every foundation will be impossible to use for a new replacement structure.

The entire issue of how the city handles fir properties is being examined by the city Planning Commission tonight at 6:30.

Their recommendations will go to the city council for an ultimate decision. 

FEMA Snubs California Request To Test Cleared Lots For Soil Contamination

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has asked FEMA to reverse its decision to skip soil testing after federal cleanup workers remove debris from properties burned in the Eaton and Palisades fires.

State officials say FEMA’s decision makes no sense … because FEMA has tested all properties that the federal government has cleared after fires in recent years.

And California officials say testing has shown that wildfire contamination can extend deeper than 6 inches into the dirt .. the depth that FEMA will scrape. 

California wants soil testing done at every fire teardown … but a FEMA official quickly shot down the state’s preferred cleanup approach.  He called the process “tedious” and “inefficient.”

FEMA said soil testing would jeopardize the speed and the budget of the cleanup.

FEMA said the state, local governments, or individual property owners can conduct soil testing if they wish to do so … but FEMA will not reimburse the costs for soil testing unless testing shows positive results clearly attributed to the fires.”

KBUU News has learned that there may be a workaround. 

The state is considering simply bypassing FEMA … have the state perform the testing … and then bill FEMA for the tests that turn ups pollution.

And a lot of those tests will fail.

During the cleanup of the 2018 Camp fire, about one-third of the properties still contained toxic chemicals in excess of California cleanup standards, even after 3 to 6 inches of topsoil was removed.

Meanwhile … hundreds of Federal Emergency Management Agency employees were fired by Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s workers over the holiday weekend and Tuesday

The cuts, which come in addition to the firing of more than 200 last week, target probationary and contract employees and could affect people across the country who are struggling to rebuild and prepare for disasters.

A spokesman tells the Washington Post … “Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we are making sweeping cuts and reform across the federal government to eliminate egregious waste and incompetence that has been happening for decades at the expense of the American taxpayer,.

FEMA has about 25,000 people, and the cuts will affect disaster victims seeking individual assistance funds.,

Campus Kilpatrick May See Prisoners Moved Out Of Malibu Mountains

The controversial prison for young men in the mountains above Malibu appears to be on track for changes … again.

It used to be a high school-like campus for youthful offenders … but then its function has morphed several times.  Now, Campus Kilpatrick is the medium security prison-like facility on Encinal Canyon Road at Mulholland Highway.

The county probation department has been a revolving door of bosses … and the role of Campus Kilpatrick has changed over and over again. 

For the past 3 years … the LA County Probation Department has been responsible for housing,  programming and treatment of young adults previously committed to state prisons.

And it has been housing adults who used to be teenaged offenders … who have grown into adulthood with convictions for crimes like murder or rape.

It used to be a high school-like campus for youthful offenders … but then its function has morphed several times. In effect … Campus Kilpatrick is now a prison for youth convicted of very serious crimes … murder or rape … as they age into adulthood. 

On Tuesday .. the head of the county probation department says the role of Campus Kilpatrick will change again.

Guillermo Viera Rosa is the chief probation officer.

70972 GUILLERMO PROBATION 

“In all likelihood the most difficult part of of the decisions that were making in Probation really surround our stepdown to Kilpatrick. 

“It is a program that really receives a lot of positive feedback from both those are there and folks at work there.

“And we want to make sure that the population has an opportunity through pro-social behavior and their own decision making to have a step-down.

“However … we have limited locations and I believe that we can better utilize our facility.”

Viera Rosa told the county Board of Supervisors this week that Campus Kilpatrick will evolve to a small community environment treatment center for young juvenile offenders.

70973 PLANS GUILLERMO 

“Smaller communities lend themselves to providing better services and healing spaces for our young people.

“Secondly, the front-loading assessments and understanding the individual young person needs has to become a priority, moving forward.

“And third and an acknowledgment that we have been in a staffing crisis that actually consolidating some of our locations will impart not totally in part help us address staffing shortages.”

That sounds a lot like what campus Kilpatrick was two decades … essentially a high school with dorms and a fence around it. 

Details have yet to be released.