City Urges League of California Cities to Join Opposition to SMMC Parks Plan

• Contentious Conservancy Package Is Slated for State Coastal Commission Review

BY BILL KOENEKER

Without comment or discussion, the Malibu City Council this week adopted a resolution that will request the League of California Cities oppose the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s proposed parks and trails plan. The league founded in 1898 includes 478 California cities in its ranks. Malibu has been a member since it incorporated in 1990.

The SMMC and its sister agency, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, are scheduled next week to consider approving the plan and submitting it to the California Coastal Commission for certification.

The plan proposes linking a series of five SMMC properties and National Park Service land with a multi-use trail, including camping in several of the coastal canyons and expanded uses of Ramirez Canyon Park, where the Conservancy is headquartered.

The controversial plan was opposed by the California Contract Cities Association after Malibu persuaded the organization to endorse the city’s opposition to the plan.

The city has taken the position that the public works plan bypasses local control and oversight and has argued that since the SMMC is an area-wide agency and has many joint power authority agencies its future role could preclude local control in many other locations besides Malibu on other issues.

“This is an unusual deployment of a ‘public works plan.’ The proposals in the ‘plan’ (such as adding parking spaces, restrooms, trailheads, camp sites) appear to be simply development within the meaning of the Coastal Act and therefore simply subject to obtaining a [coastal permit] consistent with the Local Coastal Program,” wrote City Attorney Christi Hogin in a memo to council members.

Hogin indicated in the past the Conservancy has received its permits from the Coastal Commission. “Now that the city has a certified LCP, the Conservancy would be required to apply to the city for a permit. In lieu of that, the Conservancy has elected to propose a public works plan which is subject to approval of the Coastal Commission not the city, although the commission must ‘consult’ with the city. Any way that one views it, the plan is a direct effort to skip the LCP and therefore skip the City of Malibu,” added Hogin.

The city attorney noted the plan itself is “problematic for various reasons,” including that it appears to permit camping on the trails in residential neighborhoods, allows extensive event uses at Ramirez Canyon Park, proposes trails that do not correspond with the city’s master trails plan and seems to rely on the city’s police power for implementation.

“In many respects, the plan is inconsistent with the LCP. In addition, the Conservancy has refused to comply with the [California Environmental Quality Act] in connection with the plan,” Hogin added.