SC Edison Building Equipment Yard In Downtown Malibu

Southern California Edison crews are setting up a second temporary construction yard at the Malibu Civic Center.

City officials have issued an emergency permit to allow the utility company to set up a forward construction operating base on a vacant lot …just below the City Hall on Stewart Ranch Road at Civic Center Way.

Edison is planning a half billion dollars in expenditures to improve the safety of its overhead power poles across its service area … in high fire risk zones. 

And without public notice …. it has rented a large vacant lot to set up an equipment staging yard … in the heart of Malibu.

There is no word on how long the lot will be there.

The construction yard is on a gently-sloping parcel used for flower growing a generation ago.

This is the second Edison construction yard in Malibu this year.

The company took over the Malibu Chili Cookoff lot immediately after the Woolsey Fire … and stationed a huge amount of trucks … cranes … poles … cross arms and cable spools there.

All that was removed … after 8 weeks.

The dirt lot was left covered with gravel.

Now … a similar lot has been built across the street.

Some residents have taken to social media to complain …. but city officials say the construction lot is legal and does not need environmental impact reviews or city planning commission approval.