State Agency Targets Illegal Signs and Encroachments in Malibu

• Coastal Commission Enforcement Takes Aim at Counterfeit ‘No Parking’ Postings

BY HANS LAETZ

A regional Coastal Commission enforcement official says Malibu residents who have put up their own, official-looking “No Parking” signs may expect enforcement action soon. And one of the biggest offenders may be the City of Malibu itself.

Pat Veesart, senior enforcement team leader a the Coastal Commission’s Ventura office, said his office received numerous complaints last summer from people about a growing rash of ‘No Parking’ signs at several Malibu public access points, including Lechusa, Broad, Little Dume, Escondido and Latigo beaches.

An even bigger problem may be the wholesale taking of public streets for landscaping, walls or private parking places in some areas, he said. “Public land has been absconded with by private property owners.”

Some of the worst abuses may be along the west end of Broad Beach Drive, near where the state has obtained easements to allow public foot access to Lechusa Beach, but where on-street parking has been eliminated over the decades by resident encroachment, Veesart said.

Volunteer surveyors have measured the public right of way on Broad Beach Road and found trees, mailboxes, private driveways and stairways encroaching onto public property. The situation, Veesart said, is particularly bad west of Bunnie Drive, where the public road suddenly narrows even though the right-of-way line does not.

“These are the only parking places available to access the beach that the people of the State of California paid a lot to acquire,” he said Friday, as he looked at rock walls and other permanent structures that extended at least 15 feet over the right of way line and onto Broad Beach Road, a former state highway with a broad right of way.

“All along Broad Beach Road there are a lot of parking places that look private,” said Jenny Price, a Los Angeles resident who frequently uses Malibu beaches, accessways and parks. Price runs an advocacy group called LA Urban Rangers that offers tours of publicly-owned areas along the Malibu coast, places that some oceanfront homeowners consider their own.

Last Friday, Veesart showed the Malibu Surfside News more than a dozen homes along Broad Beach Road where walls intruded onto the public road, and where landscaping or pavement was used to make a public parking place look like private property.

“If you park here, the homeowner will come out and tell you ‘you’re on private property,’ and because it looks like it, a deputy would reasonably cite you or tow your car away,” he said.

Veesart said no one at the commission has any problem with what he called “no harm, no foul” landscaping, walls or staircases on the side of the road, unless they block potential parking or convey a message that a piece of road that the State of California bought in 1931 from the Rindge family has become private.

The enforcement official said he plans to meet soon with City of Malibu officials over official-looking “No Parking” signs set up all over the western end of Malibu. He said he is particularly concerned about several new signs banning parking near Geoffrey’s Restaurant that were not posted by the California Department of Transportation, which owns and controls Highway 1.

“These signs are right next to the Escondido accessway, and they have the effect of banning parking on the publicly-owned road shoulder. Caltrans tells me they were installed by the City of Malibu at the request of homeowners, but I don’t know who put them up.

“If they affect access to the publicly-owned beach, then a coastal development permit must be applied for, noticed and granted by the responsible city,” Veesart said, even thought the responsible agency within city limits is the City of Malibu itself.

“The implication is ‘OK, you public jerks, there are only two parking places for you here and no more,’” Price said.

Veesart said ‘No Parking’ zones near Point Dume may greatly exceed what is permissible under a nearly-10-year-old agreement that got Malibu off the hook for violating coastal access rules. Under that compromise, a small parking area was built on Cliffside Drive for surfers and flower lovers to enjoy the adjacent state park.

In exchange, the city removed boulders it had dumped on the public land to prevent parking, and was allowed to ban parking in the immediate area.

Since then, tow-away zones have extended more than a half mile on three nearby streets.

Veesart said he would contact the city to determine if the signs were officially installed, and check with commission lawyers to see if they are legal.

“I have the feeling that the majority of Malibu residents use the beach and do not favor private owners taking over public property,” Veesart said. But he said the city, like all cities along the coast, must follow the letter of the law as drawn up in the Local Coastal Plan that was adopted at the order of the state legislature.