Consultants Say Legacy Park Plans Are Technically Feasible

• Problems of Stormwater and Wastewater Dispersal Appear to Be Resolved

BY BILL KOENEKER

A consultant working on the design plans for the proposed Legacy Park told a joint meeting of the Malibu City Council and the city’s planning commission last week that the ambitious goals set out for the park can be met.

“We can achieve the stormwater and wastewater goals, provide habitat restoration and provide passive recreational and meet educational goals,” said RMC engineering consultant Steve Clary, who said the doubts about accomplishing all the tasks that were expressed at the last workshop meeting “were amplified by the press.”

“We have been worried for months about the problem of dispersing all of the treated wastewater flows,” added Clary, who said the good news is the most recent technical findings demonstrate “the wastewater element is technically feasible. We can dispose of all of the flows not reused.”

The park’s function, besides the landscaping and restoration elements, is for utilizing the almost 15-acre vacant site for storing and processing stormwater runoff and designing landscape irrigation for reuse of treated effluent.

“There is no dispersal of [treated] wastewater on Legacy Park. But in terms of irrigation there is reuse potential at Legacy Park,” he noted.

That was a far cry from the previous workshop, when Clary indicated the “numbers did not pencil out,” and there was concern that there was not enough useable land for the stated goals of both treating, storing and dispersing stormwater runoff and reusing and dispersing wastewater from a proposed treatment plant.

The key, according to Clary, is land along Stuart Ranch Road where treated wastewater dispersal can take place and other areas off-site of Legacy Park. “If we are able to site five acres, we can do it,” he said.

The plans, according to the consultant, call for creating a stormwater basin at Legacy Park for storing stormwater runoff that will be treated by the city’s stormwater treatment facility currently online. The basin would be vegetated, much like the wetlands at Egret Pond. Water would be stored at the basin during the wet season for future treatment. The treated runoff would be dispersed on the Legacy Park grounds.

Consultants also talked about what kind of collection system would be used for the sewer system, either utilizing a gravity flow via pump stations to get effluent to the treatment plant proposed for the Wave property, or by pumps placed at each individual home, a pressure system or some kind hybrid system.

In a pressure system, the pump stations disappear and every single house has its own grinder pump in a sump which is no bigger than a septic tank. Every property pumps to the treatment plant.

The hybrid system calls for every house to have its own pump, but the effluent is first sent to a pump station.

The sizing of the system does not include Serra Retreat and different service areas would be included as the system was expanded.

The total build out planned for a total of four service areas would provide for a system that could handle 381,600 gallons per day.

A centralized plant would be built behind the Civic Center government complex. The biosolids could be handled off site, which would increase truck traffic. “There is still a need to identify and negotiate the off-site process including maybe talking to Tapia [for biosolid disposal],” said Clary.

The joint panel was also informed about the preliminary plans for how the park would be landscaped and what habitat restoration plans were being proposed. “This is a relatively small area, but is it a great opportunity to recreate habitat in the West LA area,” said the consultant’s ecologist. He said the emphasis on habitat restoration would be focused on a regional approach rather than locally, hence plans called for creating a prairie, vernal pools, small riparian habitat and a wetlands area in the stormwater storage basin.

The ecologist said the biggest impact on biodiversity would be recreating a prairie, though he acknowledged that Malibu never had such a habitat. The vernal pools are small depressions in the soil that fill with rainwater during the winter and spring. He said that 99 percent of the vernal pools in the state have disappeared and the installation of such a feature would serve both restoration and educational goals. “As the water evaporates, there are different species of plants that bloom,” he noted.

Some council members expressed concern about such a feature. Mayor Jeff Jennings said he was not interested in “creating a habitat for the West Nile virus,” because of the potential for creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes in such pools.

Panelists also urged designers to keep the entrance to the park somewhere near the library and the Civic Center government complex instead of on the corner of Webb Way and Civic Center Way.

Two alternatives for how the park would be laid out were shown. Consultants emphasized the difference of the alternatives is “subtle,” and both variations offered the same components with slight differences.

Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich said what was missing from the plans are any references to the artistic and cultural aspects of the community.

She suggested a committee be formed to handle such a chore. City Manager Jim Thorsen said they would take it under advisement.

An administrative Draft Environment Impact Report should be available for review by December. It was agreed to have the consultants make a presentation to the city’s Wastewater Advisory Committee.