Last Minute Opposition to Pt Dume Stairway Emerges
Written by 991KBU on November 5, 2018
A shadowy group of Point Dume residents is asking the Malibu city council to disallow the repair of the Point Dume beach access stairway.
The existing stairway has been there for decades … it provides access for the general public to Big Dume and Little Dume beaches.
The staircase has been falling apart.
State parks has money to replace it … and the city Planning Commission has already approved it.
Now a group called Friends of Point Dume has come out to oppose rebuilding the staircase.
The group has filed an appeal tot he city council.
They claim that there’s not enough parking on the point Headland to serve visitors using the staircase.
They’ve hired local political fixer Don Schmitz to try to overturn a city planning Commission okay of the state parks project.
Schmitz argues that an environmental impact report should have been done for the staircase project.
Schmitz wants the city council to delay the project so that any traffic and circulation study can be done.
All of this goes back to 25 years ago … when when point residents got tired of cars constantly clogging the point doom area.
Too many people using the staircase … too many cars parked on the road … and to be honest … to many non-locals surfing at Big Dume Beach.
The city council ordered boulders to be dumped on the side of the public road… blocking access to the state park.
The coastal commission reacted predictively … they went meshugganah.
They filed suit … and the city lost tens of thousands of dollars fighting a losing lawsuit.
And tens of thousands of dollar running a shuttle bus thta no one used … as punishment.
A handful of public parking spaces were installed.
State parks wants to repair the staircase … but the so called friends of point doom are arguing that because there is not enough parking … a traffic study must be completed.
That .. despite the fact that the city’s zoning rules do not require parks to have minimum parkign requirements.
The whole matter goes to the city council next week.
