Water Improvements Planned for Trancas Said to Be Independent of Plans for Shopping Center Growth

• Site Owner Says He Doesn’t Need Upgrades to Develop

BY BILL KOENEKER

Both the shopping center owner and water district officials have indicated that water improvements currently planned for Malibu West and the Trancas area are not tied to the planned expansion of Trancas Country Market.
“It has nothing to do with the TCM remodel/expansion and is not a requirement for our project,” said Dan Bercu, who heads the ownership of the Trancas shopping center. “The water upgrade for western Malibu is an infrastructure improvement by Water District 29 at their choosing.”
Some Malibu West residents have questioned whether the replacement of small pipes with larger ones and the addition of a new regulation station will only benefit the remodeling project for Trancas Country Market and may have been designed primarily for that purpose.
But Los Angeles County Waterworks District 29 officials say the work, which already have been approved and funded, is a long-term planned expansion of the water delivery system in western Malibu and predates Bercu’s ownership of what is now called the Trancas Country Market center.
The existing distribution system conveys domestic water through a 30-inch steel pipe located beneath Pacific Coast Highway. The distribution main has a maximum size of 30 inches and reduces to 16 inches as the line passes in front of the Trancas and PCH supermarket and shops complex.
There is an existing 12-inch water pipe that branches from the 16-inch pipe at the intersection of Trancas Canyon Road and PCH and fills the Trancas Canyon water tank, which holds 500,000 gallons.
There is also a pair of one-million-gallon water tanks near Nicholas Beach that are filled by the current 14-inch water main.
“The proposed regulating station planned at the south-east corner of the market parking lot will not decrease water pressure. The proposed regulation station and cross-country pipe replacement upgrade will introduce redundancy and reliability to the existing water distribution system, wrote Quang Tran, an engineer for Burdge and Associates, the architects of the planned shopping center expansion, who explained the developer’s assessment of the county’s project and its impact on the area of the development.
“The existing static water pressure around the Trancas market area is about 130 psi,” Tran continued. “Once the planned improvements are completed the static water pressure for the area is expected to continue to be 130 psi or greater.”
Tran said he was told by a Waterworks District 29 engineer the pipe replacement upgrades will increase water capacity for the existing water supply system. He added that a significant portion of the water infrastructure improvements will be installed on the Trancas market property and will benefit those residents around the Trancas market area.
The Waterworks District 29 Web site describes the cross-country replacement as a project that consists of installing 540 feet of new 10-inch-diameter steel water main between Morning View Drive and Paseo Canyon Road to replace an existing aging water main in the same area.
“This project will also include the replacement of 500 feet of a four-inch-diameter water main located on Pacific Coast Highway and relocation of a pressure regulating station to improve fire protection flow in the area,” the Website states.
“The water district has continued to make improvements in western Malibu where households have multiplied faster than the district has been able to keep pace.”
Last year, the district replaced approximately 7200 linear feet of 12-inch-diameter steel water main to replace an existing six-inch-diameter water main along Broad Beach Road. The project also included replacement of a two-inch-diameter pipeline on Bunnie Lane and a four-inch-diameter pipeline serving Cottontail Lane with an eight-inch-diameter pipeline and connects both to the new 12-inch-diameter water main on Broad Beach.