LA County To Reopen Zuma Lot at 50% Capacity, But PCH Parking Will Continue And Other Access Gates Opened
Written by 991KBU on May 22, 2020
After dithering back and forth all week, L A County officials today said every other parking place in the Zuma Beach parking lot will be reopened for the holiday weekend.
Gates to MRCA and county accessways will be officially open to the public as well.
It appears that laying in the sand will not be prohibited, but not be specifically allowed. And the bathrooms will be open, according to city sources.
And a huge show of force by law enforcement will be stationed in Malibu – after last weekend was marred by what city officials said was a disastrous disconnect between the city’s needs and the response from the local sheriff’s office.
A huge show of force by L.A. County deputies is planned, with as many as 50 extra uniformed deputies in Malibu over the three day Memorial Day weekend.
It is not clear how many of those additional deputies are already scheduled as part of the Beach Team, the annual summer deployment that bolsters enforcement at Zuma Beach and other public shores.
Commanders at the Malibu-Lost Hills sheriff’s station have been polite, but commanders have not returned KBUU phone calls all week.
“LASD has nearly tripled the amount of LASD personnel that was in Malibu compared to last weekend,” said city manager Reva Feldman. Shifts are staggered so that there will be deputies on the beach from 10am to 11pm Saturday through Monday.
There will also be 12 extra deputies in Malibu on Sunday that are being deployed from the County’s Disaster Operations Center. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s office is helping to fund some of the additional deputies and has agreed to do so again for Fourth of July and Labor Day.
City of Malibu Volunteers On Patrol will be out providing parking enforcement, and the city has hired two California Highway Patrol officers for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The CHPs will be in Malibu from 10am to 6pm each day to provide dedicated traffic enforcement on PCH, Feldman said.
At Zuma Beach, the parking spaces will be open in a hopscotch pattern. Feldman said Beaches and Harbors has requested up to 40 disaster service workers to perform good-will ambassador roles, advising beach patrons of the COVID-19 related rules and there will be signage at the entrance to the parking lots.
Locked beach accessways operated by the MRCA and California State Parks will be opened throughout Malibu.
Many of the state beach parking lots in the Malibu and Point Mugu area will be open at 50 percent capacity, with hours of operation of 8AM to sunset.
