Council Denies Appeal of Trancas Park OK and Moves It Ahead

• Residents Concerned about Heavy Grading Had Urged that Hilltop Ridge be Spared

BY BILL KOENEKER

Despite pleas to “Save Trancas Ridge,” the Malibu City Council, on a 3-2 vote, denied appeal of planning commission approval of plans and permits for Trancas Park. Councilmembers Pamela Conley Ulich and Jefferson Wagner dissented.
The planning commission had approved the plans and permits for the park, which include a multi-use sports practice field, a dog park, a tot lot, parking spaces for 64 cars and 126,000 cubic yards of grading for the seven-acre park on a 13.6 acre site along Trancas Canyon Road.
Conley Ulich said she wants to see the park built, but wants to find out if the ridgeline, where critics say caves and rock outcroppings support wildlife, could be saved and not destroyed.
“I can’t support [denying the appeal]. I would like to have more information,” she said.
Many of the critics suggested the council consider an alternative, but some council members brushed that idea aside.
“I think you people who said they wanted an alternative do not really know the alternative,” said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who said the other choices offered more grading and retaining walls than the current design. Barovsky added that she thought that after the ridgeline was shaved down, it would look better than what currently exists. “You will probably have a more spectacular view,” she said, to which the audience loudly shouted, “No.”
Councilmember John Sibert, who was the swing vote, said he would support the park, but with some contingencies. “But I am not happy about it,” he said. Sibert said the massive grading gave him heartburn.
Critics of the park had shifted the focus from how much grading to what would be graded, and many Malibu West neighbors said the destruction of a ridgeline where the dog park and tot lot were planned was objectionable and should be stopped.
The controversy swirling around the park seemed to have escalated in the last few weeks, as critics became more vociferous in their complaints.
Council members said they had received several dozen emails each, and a DVD. The Save the Ridge campaign even posted a YouTube video.
The heightened emotional level of the controversy was evident Monday night when posters were swirled, and tee-shirts with slogans were worn. Audience members, who waved cards that said “Save the Ridge,” were chastised more than once when they cheered during public testimony. Mayor Andy Stern told them to wave their hands rather than make noise.
Wagner singled out one email he said broke the decorum of the council’s office. He said the e-mail was from Mona Loo, a longtime Barovsky political campaign organizer and community activist.
A copy of the email obtained by the Malibu Surfside New read, “Dear Councilmembers, If you don’t vote in support of Trancas Park, we’re going to come and make yellow circles on your lawn.” It was signed, “Yours drooly, Cindy and Honey Loo.”
Loo, who has spearheaded the campaign for a dog park, apologized for the communication and said it was meant as a joke.
Supporters expressed dismay that, so late in the game, critics were attempting to jeopardize the future of the park after 10 years, 27 public meetings and hearings before the planning commission and city council.
Mike Matthews expressed that concern when he told the council. “I am wildly in favor of the park. I’m afraid any delays will not be short delays. They might be terminal,” he said.
The mayor said the opposition’s talking points crystallized for him when he heard critics said they were for the park, “not just this one, or they supported the park, but somewhere else.”
“These are code words. That is a code word for no,” said Stern.
His reaction was to numerous individuals who insisted they had supported the park all along until the information was revealed about how much grading was planned. The park plans call for 126,000 cubic yards of grading, or as one speaker said, “That is 126 times more than the city’s legal limit.”
Malibu attorney Frank Angel said he represented appellants Robert Belvin and Mark Davis. Angel was insistent that the council order the preparation and circulation of a revised Draft Environmental Impact Report.
“The significant new information is contained among other things, in the grading plan review report,” Angel said.
Angel ticked off a laundry list of technical information that was either incorrect or incomplete. “The final EIR for the project is fundamentally and basically inadequate as an information disclosure document,” added Angel.
What new items the council did add to the park plans were recommendations from the Malibu West Homeowners Association.
Those conditions include no smoking, closing the park on red flag days, added security measures, noise mitigation measures, specific park hours, no amplified music, and no special events, among other conditions. The staff was directed to bring back the revised resolution for council scrutiny.