Another Weekend Rescue From Overcrowded MRCA Trail In Escondido Canyon

Another weekend of crowds  in Malibu.

Malibu Search And Rescue teams used a helicopter to rescue an injured hiker on the Escondido Falls Trail Sunday. The woman slipped and injured her back near the waterfalls.

Also … numerous illegally parked cars in dangerous places on PCH near the Escondido Falls trailhead.  We also spotted la county sheriff’s deputies writing parking tickets there.

One Malibu rescinder who has lived on the Winding Way access road to the falls says … the Coastal Commission and other agencies need to wake up that overuse is destroying nature.

Lori Lerner-Gray says plans to bring in more people. … are devastating.

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“You know the problem Hans is, (that) as much as we love seeing the kids up there off their devices, and young families and everyone taking a hike – I love that because I feel really blessed to be able to live here – the problem is there’s no monitoring.

“There are no rangers.

“The MRCA, social media, everyone’s encouraging people to come out this gorgeous trail.  But the problem is, when thousands of people show up and we have to deploy our local sheriffs on PCH and Winding Way, because people are crossing the street with strollers and making these crazy U-turns.

“It’s a problem.  Of course, we’ve had all sorts of problems.

“There have been scores of emergency rescues and fatalities as well.”

Lori Lerner-Gray is one of many residents we’ve spoken with … who live near the trails … who are seeing their own yards trammelled by out of control hikers.

And they are not opposed to people enjoying the area.

They support public access.

But not without protection for the environment .. and by extension … protection for them.

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“The parking used to be free – now they’re charging you know $12 in a small parking lot.

“Why aren’t those fees being used for rangers or to hire – I don’t know – forestry students? Or interns?
“Some sort of a presence … a reservation system …. this isn’t Yosemite … but the Falls are extraordinary so we really need to think about the best way to preserve this and open this up and allow people to come.

“But we have to make sure that these parks are operating in the public interest – that they’re serving the public … safely.”

Last week … the Mountain Resource Conservation Authority sent a park ranger to the Malibu city Council meeting… To announce that there had been no incidents over Easter weekend

There were at least two rescues that weekend… According to neighbors.

And similar overcrowding is a daily occurrence at Point Dume … at 

Either the MRCA is not aware of what is happening … or it is incompetent as a conservation agency and is unable to manage its holdings. 

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Not Many Details From 5-Car Fiery Explosion On PCH Saturday Night

We have only a barebones description of the mayhem Saturday night down in Los Angeles … where Pacific Coast Highway was the scene of a fiery pileup that involved no fewer than fiucve cars.

Two people were critically injured in the crash and the fires that broke out afterward.

City of LA Fire was called out at 8:55pm to the crash, which involved at least five cars.

A total of seven people were hurt … including two in critical condition and 2 with non-life threatening injuries.  

Their ages and genders were not available.

This was at the complicated and curvy intersection of Chautauqua … Entrada and West Channel Road … where they all converge on PCH in Pacific Palisades. 

We’re reported before and we will say it again.

This intersection was laid out in 1929 … and has not been updated since. 

It’s controlled by the City of Los Angeles… which has shown little to no interest in the dangerous design there.

Right next to the intersection … some agency is building new bike paths and bridges across the flood control channel for two wheelers. 

And LA plans a striping change on northbound PCH.

That will be the first change in the traffic control pattern there is more than 60 years.

Traffic from Saturday night’s crash was backed up for miles … as hundreds of car enthusiasts had no other way to get to and from Malibu to race and make noise. 

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Ginormous Crane Set Up To Place Girders At Trancas Bridge

Mister Crane is up and ready to go.

A gigantic yellow crane from a company called Mr. Crane has been moved into place along Pacific Coast Highway at Trancas Creek.

Girders for the Trancas Creek bridge are gong to be lifted into place this week … if all goes to Caltrans schedule.

Make that .. the revised revised schedule. 

The 14 million dollar project has been plagued with design flaws that have put the project a year and a half behind schedule.

As KBUU has been reporting … the entire project was delayed a year because engineers did not conduct test borings in the middle of the creek … to sample the sand and mud underneath.

Then … engineers discovered the brand new bridge supports wee not deep enough … at 68 feet down … they were still sitting in soft creek goop. 

New supports were sunk … twice as deep … and they passed stress tests.

Those columns will be topped with girders starting today.

The girders will then get covered with cement. 

At some point in a few weeks … traffic will be shifted onto the new half of the bridge.

And the 96-year-old southern half of the bridge will be demolished and replaced.

The supports on that half will be twice as deep as originally planned … from the start.

Work crews expect to be done by the end of this year.

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SMMUSD Urges Parents To Use Covid Tests If Kids Get Sniffles

School is back in session … in Malibu …today.

The final eight weeks of classes resume today.

Interim school superintendent Mark Kelly told parents in an email this weekend it would be smart to set their kids for Covid …. 

This … because many families have traveled and gathered with others during there two week break. 

Kelly says the district thinks many families have a supply of Covid-19 tests at home provided by the schools.

Any positive result …or any illness for that matter … should trigger people to stay home, isolate and let the school nurse know.

Covid test kits are no longer being handed out weekly, but they are available at schools upon request.

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Malibu Inn Hotel To Get Grilling At Planning Commission Tonight; City Council Revisits Nearby Sea View Hotel And Associated Campground Next Week

Two proposed hotels on PCH near the Malibu Pier are going to get public hearings and key votes … this week at next.

Next week … the city council will handle the hot potato issue of one hotel project paying off the Coastal commission 800 thousand dollars … to help build a campground on Kanan Dume Road. 

But tonight … developers seeking to build a multistory hotel … etched into the cliff across from Malibu Surfrider beach … go up for a public hearing.

The Planning Commission has been very skeptical about the proposed Malibu Inn Hotel … requested for the vacant lot … next to the old Malibu Inn nightclub.

They have asked questions about the proposed hotel’s vertical walls … to be cut into the cliff behind it.

The developer says those will be obscured by the two story hotel itself.

But the planning commission has had questions about the hotel’s proposed rooftop deck and swimming pool. 

The proposed hotel wiped also have an underground parking garage … but it would be wedged onto a lot that is supposed to have a hotel that is rural in nature … according to the zoning code. 

And how the Malibu Inn Hotel would affect the old nightclub next door is also a controversy.

The owners have already won permission to downsize the nightclub .. to make room for more parking for the proposed hotel.

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And next week … the city council will get one more look at the office-building-into-luxury-hotel proposed by developer Norm Haynie.

He calls it the Sea View Hotel … it’s proposed for the office building across PCH from Nobu .. next to McDonalds.

Haynie’s original proposal included in $800,000 pay off to the city… a part of a civic benefits package that included building an important water valve that the water department really needs to serve all of Malibu.

When the coastal commission staff took a look at that… they tacked on an $800,000 payoff from the developer to help build a campground … on Kanan Dume Road … that the MRCA is proposing.

The developer agreed.

The the news broke … that the new 39 room hotel means funding a campground … some people gasped.

The original hotel concept had generated almost no community opposition. 

But that was without a campground funding mechanism. 

Will the city council okay that little coastal commission add on?

The city attorney says the city council can reject the hotel and campground link … if it finds that it violates the Malibu Local Coastal Plan … the L C P.

There is no campground off Kanan Dume Road in the Malibu L C P.

That leaves the hotel … the campground … and Norm Haynie open for a lawsuit by any group opposing the campground.

That issue gets decided next Monday night at the city council meeting.

The Pk,annign Commission tonight grapples its the Malibu Inn proposal … down at the pier. 

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Malibu Brewing Company is a locally owned craft brewery, proudly supporting our community, and local public radio. 

The tap room at Trancas Country Market is open… 

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Malibu Brewing Company Malibu California

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