School District Wants City to Provide Fix for MVD Traffic Issues

• 150-Space Ridgetop Parking Lot and Degradation of ESHA Could Kindle Opposition to Plans

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

At its meeting in Malibu last week, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education revealed that it is hoping to pass the buck to the City of Malibu for traffic and safety improvements on Morning View Drive in front of Malibu Middle and High School and Juan Cabrillo Elementary School.
A revised Measure BB improvements project parking and traffic safety plan for the two campuses was presented at the meeting. It outlined the on-site addition of a 150-space parking lot on the ridge above the high school football stadium, up from the original suggestion of 110 spaces, presented in December of 2008, but down from a more ambitious plan, proposed in February, of a 250-plus-space lot, on what the district’s consultant described as an ecologically sensitive coastal sage scrub environment.
According to project consultant Tom Tomeoni, the campus is currently 76 parking spaces short of City of Malibu Local Coastal Plan requirements. The 150-space lot proposal, together with plans to restripe the main north lot, would give the district a total of 384 spaces, 33 more than the city requires.
The proposed new lot is not without problems. The ridgetop location will require what many think will be more extensive grading than the district consultants are currently anticipating, as well as coastal sage scrub replacement, and the addition of ramps and stairs to access the bluff top location. A deeded equestrian trail will also have to be relocated.
Security is also a concern. New perimeter fencing is part of the plan, not just for the new lot but for the entire campus. The district may encounter stiff opposition to the new lot’s conspicuous bluff-top location from Malibu Park residents.
Even the restriping and reconfiguring of the existing north lot is not free of issues. Tomeoni claimed that development in the area of the north lot predated the Coastal Act, meaning that the district had the right to “redevelop certain areas” that otherwise would be protected. “We still have to be sensitive to environmental concerns,” Tomeioni said. “We will be diverting drainage away from the ESHA.”
Traffic and safety plans presented at the meeting also include rerouting pick-up and drop-off at Juan Cabrillo away from the front and into a new parking lot carved out of the playground at the back of the campus. Two new traffic roundabouts were also suggested. The first would be located in the center of the north parking lot, near the Boys and Girls Club. The second would be placed on Morning View Drive, in front of the main driveway into the north parking lot. Unspecified “PCH/ Morning View intersection improvements were also on the diagram presented at the meeting, along with continuing plans to install a dedicated right turn lane from Merritt Drive into the proposed new lot.
Board of education members, having just been told that the district is required to spend $500,000 to upgrade the campus waterline and bring the property’s water supply up to fire safety standards, and an additional $250,000 to move the proposed new library and front entrance back five feet because the Morning View Drive right of way turned out to be 55 feet, not the 50 feet the architects had anticipated, balked at the $2.5 million price tag for the parking, traffic and safety improvement plans.
Earlier in the meeting, the board heard from a delegation of teachers publicly expressing displeasure over proposed cuts to health benefits and a grim report from Financial Oversight Committee chair Cynthia Torres, who stated that the district’s funding projections were overly optimistic.
“I’m not prepared to vote for the full amount, “ board member Oscar de la Torre said. “We need to meet with the city to see what a partnership with the city [of Malibu] would look like.
“There’s two pieces to this,” board president Ralph Mechur said, explaining that half of the money requested was “related to work on campus,” and that money for off-site improvements would not be spent unless the city is involved. “It’s a very intricate situation,” Mechur said.
Malibu resident and former City of Malibu safety commissioner Ryan Embree wanted to know why the morning View Drive traffic roundabout was being presented to the public at the school board meeting before it had been presented to the city, especially since the board is expecting the city to foot the bill for the plan. He said that, from his experience, it would be a good idea to budget funds to cover the cost of removing the feature and apologizing for it afterwards. “A 40-foot school bus isn’t going to do well on a 50 foot street with a turn-around,” he said.
“It’s a valid concern,” Tomeioni replied. He explained that the district would donate enough right-of-way to accommodate an 80-foot diameter for the proposed Morning View Drive roundabout, and added that the plan has been “reviewed by two traffic engineers. We are satisfied. Remember now, there are no perfect solutions.” The diagram that accompanied the presentation did not indicate the location of residential driveways on the opposite side of Morning View, nor address the potential impact the change might have on those residences.
“Is it right this plan hasn’t been before the city?” board member Ben Allen asked.
Jan Maez, the assistant superintendent and chief financial officer for the district, replied that Malibu’s city manager Jim Thorsen has seen the plans. “I believe there has been enough vetting by the school district,” she said. “It is appropriate to consider [the plan] at this time.”
Malibu Park resident Hans Laetz applauded the new parking lot but had concerns about the proposed changes at Juan Cabrillo. “I don’t think this plan is going to fly. It’s not acceptable in the neighborhood. It’s a dangerous lot to exit from onto Morning View Drive,” he said. Laetz also decried the loss of what he described as a delightful playground at the elementary school to accommodate the proposed traffic changes, and warned the district that, just because the school might have a right to bulldoze in the ESHA did not make it right to do so.
MHS PTA representative Colleen Baum did not agree. “I think the plan is great,” she said. “I think this is the best plan we’re going to get. It improves Malibu High in a way that pleases me—it’s 99 percent better than what we have.”
The board agreed only to fund the on-site portions of the plan and to ask the City of Malibu, which is also anticipating a budget shortfall, to cosponsor the rest of the project.