Approval of Trancas Park Contract Leads to Bickering among Council Members over Implementation

• Grading Could Be an Issue If Rainy Season Starts

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Malibu City Council was poised to approve a $2.7 million construction contract for the improvements at Trancas Canyon Park when debate erupted about some terms of the contract. The council on a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich dissenting, awarded the contract to Environmental Construction, Inc.
A spokesperson for the Santa Monica Baykeeper said there was a provision in the contract that is in contradiction to the Local Coastal Program about grading in the rainy season and requested language be modified.
Patt Healy, reading from a letter from the Malibu West Homeowners Association, also pointed out the same contract language was problematic concerning the LCP.
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich wanted to know how the city could exempt itself from LCP conditions that prohibit grading in the rainy season.
City Manager Jim Thorsen said he did not think it was a problem since the grading is expected to start on Oct. 1 and be finished in 30 days by Nov. 1, the official start of the rainy season.
Thorsen went on to explain that exemptions can and have been made when an applicant files an erosion control plan.
“There is no grading in the rainy season except if an appellant submits an erosion control plan,” he said.
Conley Ulich, who is the council’s critic of the park plans, said, “We are creating a park in the rainy season for kids to not play [regulation] games. It is wrong. Why rush this? I will vote against it and hope nothing goes wrong and there is no rainy season.”
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said she saw no reason to not go forward. Barovsky talked about how construction costs are way down because of the economy and there is no better time to build.
Councilmember John Sibert agreed. “We don’t know what costs will be in four to five months,” he added.
Councilmember Jefferson Wagner concurred and asked Thorsen if he was confident about the contractor’s promise of 30 days for the grading.
The city is currently embroiled in litigation over the city council’s approval of the permits and entitlements.
The Malibu Township Council filed suit absent the city challenging the permits and is currently in settlement talks with the city attorney.
City Attorney Christi Hogin has explained how the city can proceed with the construction while the matter is being litigated because there is no injunction against building the park.
There was a hint of one of the points currently being discussed in the settlement talks when Wagner talked about how MTC is insisting on some kind of ironclad condition that the practice fields remain for practice only and are not developed for regulation play.