Caltrans Basically Tells City ‘Stick It’ On Traffic Light
Written by 991KBU on June 26, 2018
The gloves came off at the Malibu City council meeting last night … when Caltrans officials pretty much told the city council to stick it … insofar as the location of a new traffic light.
City council members voted 5 to nothing last night to ask Caltrans to reconsider its decision to put it in a new traffic light … for pedestrians … just about 500 feet from the existing traffic light at the Malibu Pier.
The new traffic light is intended to serve the Malibu Beach Inn … as it seeks to split its operations and straddle Pacific Coast Highway in the center of Malibu.
The Malibu Beach Inn made a deal with the California coastal commission to open a new stairway to the beach … and put in the traffic light to serve it on PCH next to Billioaires Beach.
Happily for the hotel … that would also pave the way for their valets to shuttle cars back-and-forth between the hotel and a parking lot down the road… enabling the hotel to put in a swimming pool where its parking lot stands now.
Why does the hotel want a pool?
Because the beach has eroded and is no longer usable by its customers.
You know ???
The beach that the new traffic light will serve??
Councilman Skylar Peak said last night that the city never got to voice an opinion on the deal that greenlighted the traffic light … a deal between a developer … Coastal … and Caltrans.
SKYLAR XWALK QQQ THOSE ARE DIFFERENT ISSUES.
“We never got have that discussion.
“All of a sudden it was just: the crosswalk was going in.
“And the public assumed that this other thing (the valet operation) was approved, and it was like ‘okay, the writing is one the wall.
“It’s done.’ ”
The city council then voted 5 to nothing to ask Caltrans to reconsider the permit for the crosswalk, or possibly move it,
Three midlevel Caltrans bureaucrats stood at the council and said … basically … buzz off. Joseph Kibe … the Caltrans corridor manager … said the city that it has no say in the matter.
CALTRANS JOS KIBBEAH :26 QQQ: DO HAVE RIGHTS (4X).
“The permit … we have issued the permit based on established rules and policies.
“I – at this point – do not see any good reason to withdraw this permit because, as much as we understand that the citizens have rights, the council members have rights, the contractors do have rights.
“The property owners do have rights.”
And with that … the Caltrans bureaucrat decided the rights of a developer to install a traffic light
override any right of the Malibu City Council to decide whether to install it.
If there was any question over who is in charge of Pacific Coast Highway … be it the city or Caltrans … those three middle level bureaucrats let the city know its place last night.
The upshot … it looks like the traffic light on PCH will be going in near the existing light at the Malibu Pier.
Whether the Malibu Beach Inn gets to move its parking lot across the highway … very much an open question.
