MRCA Plans New Trail (Also On Private Roads) To Increase Visitors To Overcrowded Canyon
Written by 991KBU on January 7, 2019
The MRCA reveals plans to drastically increase visitor numbers in a Malibu canyon already plagued by overuse and visitor pollution.
MRCA plans to construct a new trail between Escondido Falls and Pacific Coast Highway.
Except most of the trail will not be a trail at all … it will be the private road owned and maintained by homeowners … called Murphy Way.
Details:
In an environmental impact summary … the parks agency from over the hill claims no serious envirtonmental degradation would occur by building the trail.
Escondido canyon already is overused … littered with trash … graffitti in the trees that have not been torn up.
But MRCA envisions bringing more people in … by building a loop trail …
They would extend the existing … controversial trail up one private road … Winding Way.
The new trail would then go west … climb a steep hill … a 23 percent grade … to Murphy Way … and then use that second private road to get back to PCH.
No new parking would be created … the existing jammed parking lot would be used.
Also … MRCA plans to park cars on dangerous … 50 mile per hour PCH … where most of the roadside parking is usually taken up by Paradise Cove beach users on weekends.
Incredibly … the MRCA says it does not expect many people to use the new trail … because it is so steep.
That flies in the face of overcrowded trails elsewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains … which have exploded in popularity precisely because of their steepness.
The environmental document is open for public comment before it is rubber stamped by the MRCA board … which has no vote from Malibu.
We have a link to it … on the KBUU website.
Link: https://mrca.ca.gov/about/land-use-planning-documents/
