MRCA To City: Beach Access. Deal With It.
Written by 991KBU on January 28, 2020
The M R C A … the Mountain Recreation Conservation Authority … has just served notice.
It plans to bypass the City of Malibu entirely on its plans to open 7 new beach accessways … and improve 10 existing pathways to the beach.
That was the message delivered last night to the Malibu city council.
The M R C A sent a planner down to malibu … to inform the city that its plans to implement a Public Works Plan on the city and its residents.
A P W P is a type of coastal plan provided by under the Coastal Act …
It would allow the M R C A to approve its own plan for development along the coast … parallelling and bypassing the city’s coastal plan as approved by the coastalCommission.
M R C A planner Jessica Wen appeared before the city council last night … and read a statement tell the city that the P W P is coming.
NEWSCART 75406 MRCA Beach
“Absent a comprehensive Public Works Plan … a Coastal Development Permit would be required for each individual access project … including individual environmental documentation … which is a lengthy and expensive process.
“Under a Public Works Plan … one environmental document would be prepared … and once the Public Works Plan and the environmental documentation receive approval … the subsequent review and approval of the individual projects can be streamlined.”
Streamlined … as in bypassing any input from the City of Malibu or the affected residents.
That also means no city enforcement of city laws … no city council vote on accessway operations.
And the city council does not get to vote on the P W P … it will be decided on by the M R C A.
The M R C A is an unelected panel … governed by parks agencies from Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.
The P W P proposed by the outside agency will allow M R C A to put portapotties on Malibu streets … among other changes.
But the exact plans for each accessway are vague.
The M R C A is taking public comment on its proposed P W P … in writing … thru February 7th.
