Malibu City Council Decides to Litigate Overnight Camping Bid Override

• Challenges CCC Head’s Decision to Allow SMMC Plan

BY BILL KOENEKER

Malibu City Attorney Christi Hogin announced this week that the Malibu City Council, in closed session, unanimously directed her to initiate litigation against Peter Douglas, the executive director of the California Coastal Commission, over his decision to allow a Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Local Coastal Program Amendment override.
Later in the evening, Hogin said she would have the lawsuit served this week. “It is a pretty narrow legal question,” she said.
Douglas told the Malibu Surfside News he thought the litigation was a waste of taxpayers’ money. “It is a squandering of public resources. I wonder if the city council would be so free to spend the taxpayers’ money if it were their own,” Douglas said about the litigation.
The CCC head said the issue is clear to him, “The Coastal Act does provide for Coastal Commission review when there is a broader public interest that is denied by the local government.”
As for the city’s LCP amendment, Douglas said, “It is a waste of time. It is a non-starter.”
The announcement of the lawsuit overshadowed the agenda item later in the meeting when the council also unanimously agreed to adopt a resolution that finds that the SMMC park plan, which includes overnight camping, is not a type of development subject to the LCP override provisions, and reaffirmed the city’s LCP amendment pending before the state panel.
Hogin said the council’s vote on this item is as important as the litigation, since it is a parallel process to convince the Coastal Commission of the city’s actions.
Malibu’s reaction is a direct result of Douglas determining that a plan proposed by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is eligible for an LCP amendment override that, in effect, would sidestep the city’s objections to the conservancy’s plan.
The SMMC plan calls for overnight camping facilities within park boundaries in Ramirez Canyon Park, Escondido Canyon Park and Corral Canyon Park, as well as a comprehensive program for acquiring land for and improving the Coastal Slope Trail and extensive use of facilities at the Ramirez Canyon location of the SMMC’s headquarters.
Hogin had already called Douglas’ decision extraordinary and accused the conservancy of employing what she referred to as “tactics” that try to bypass the city by seeking the override.
As is the case whenever public camping is an issue, there was nearly a standing-room-only crowd at the council meeting. Many of the speakers blasted Douglas and Joe Edmiston, the executive director of the SMMC, for their positions.
However, council members cautioned the public that personal attacks would not prove successful before the Coastal Commission.
“If you make personal attacks on Joe or Peter, they won’t work. Tell them you are afraid your house will burn down. That might work,” said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky.
Councilmember John Sibert agreed. “We have got to talk respectfully to the Coastal Commission. Personal attacks don’t work,” he said.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulrich, who thanked her colleagues for approving litigation on the contentious matter said, “This is not about keeping people out of the mountains, it is about keeping fire out.”