CCC Testimony Reflects Disparities between Views

BY BILL KOENEKER

Malibu city officials gave it their best shot on why there should be a ban on overnight camping in Malibu before the California Coastal Commission last week, but when the testimony by inner city groups and individuals talking about civil rights and social justice was over, it was clear whose comments swayed the panel.
Mayor Andy Stern and other municipal officials unsuccessfully attempted to explain how close the city’s Local Coastal Program amendment was to the override version submitted by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
However, at the same time Stern and other municipal officials also accused the commission staff of not acting in good faith with Malibu’s submittal.
“We want an integrated trail system. We want a functional transportation system. We want balanced park use and ESHA projection. We understood a ban on camping would be controversial. But we did not consider the commission staff bar all of our proposed access enhancement policies,” he said.
City Manager Jim Thorsen was somewhat tougher on the commission staff. “We were assured we would get a fair shake. However, the commission staff made no effort to discuss this application. We ask that you take our application seriously,” he said.
City Attorney Christi Hogin accused the commission staff of failing to analyze any of the other issues of the city’s LCPA. “We have gotten the short shrift,” she said.
Hogin talked about how the entire amendment process is a chance for local government and the commission to work out policies, but the override which coastal officials acknowledged had only been used one other time in the history of the commission, was undermining that dialogue.
Council members Pamela Conley Ulich and Jefferson Wagner took a different tack in urging the commissioners to postpone a decision.
Wagner attempted to explain just how difficult, under the rules and regulations of the state, it was for him to light one match on public lands when doing special effects implying the state was now about to allow campers to have cooking equipment with fewer protections.
Conley Ulich challenged the state to prove its case that there was a lack of affordable campgrounds near Malibu.
Conley Ulich offered to go camping with commissioners that evening. Her point, she said, was that despite near summertime, there were still 133 campsites available at nearby parks. “We already have 324 sites,” she added.
Councilmember John Sibert agreed and said it was important for the state to do a needs test for camping. Sibert also insisted the commissioners could not ignore the fire hazards as outlined by the Los Angeles County Fire Department officials. “Take no action, until you can talk to the fire experts. Postpone the hearing,” he said.
Many other Malibu groups and organizations spoke with emphasis on fire safety. A movie was shown of the tragedy of the Corral Canyon fire in 2007.
Lucille Keller, representing the Malibu Township Council, insisted campsites cannot be made fire safe.
Then it was the Conservancy’s turn. SMMC executive director Joe Edmiston said the city’s argument wasn’t so much stopping fire, but rather Malibu’s attempt to stop people from entering the canyon lands of Malibu. “There is no public camping in Malibu. There is a private camp. Yes. It costs $45 to $75 per night,” said Edmiston, who showed slides of fire pits at the private campground. Thirty years this has been there,” he said.
Edmiston asked rhetorically, “Is there nothing redeemable about the city’s LCPA?”
He went on to explain there were many of the same policies, but the overnight camping ban created “irreconcilable differences.”
Edmiston went on to say one of the newest mandates of the SMMC is its outreach mandate from the state to serve all ethnic groups.
Edmiston’s wife, Pepper, spoke about how the happiest days experienced by their recently deceased son, a disabled youth wracked by seizures, was the outdoor camping experience.
That was the theme repeated throughout the rest of the day, as speaker after speaker talked about how inner city children benefited from outdoors experiences and gained a precious few hours or days away from the noise and confusion of the city. Malibu, by its overwrought concern for fire, was keeping these children out of Malibu. It became a matter of social justice and civic rights.
Charles Thomas, who represents Outward Bound, said there was a need for the outdoors, a need for nature. “You folks out there are not getting it. It has become a social justice issue, a moral right,” he said.
Thomas said he admired how the folks of Malibu had peace and quiet, but lamented how the “kids of Mar Vista don’t have it.”
“It is the great divide. The folks of Malibu have a little piece of heaven and are trying to protect it. I’m asking you to share it,” Thomas added.
A speaker from the Latino Urban Forum said the concern was that Malibu’s actions are an attempt by the people who live by the public’s resources to limit access. “You portray hikers as arsonists. There is an attitude of arrogance and of self-entitlement. It doesn’t cut it,” he said.
SMMC proponent Catalina Alafaro said everybody wanted access to the parks and talked about how much her kids wanted to be a part of it.
Robert Garcia of the City Project said it is a civil rights issue and urged the commission “to apply the civil rights laws and the Coastal Act.”
Even the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s thumbs down for both LCPAs was seemingly blunted by other testimony.
Mark Massara from the Sierra Club said Malibu has been a fire hazard area for thousands of years. He said, “Everyone who lives there has chosen to live in Malibu in spite of the fire danger.”