Coastal Panel Nixes City Camping Signs
• Urges Changes to Match City Law
The California Coastal Commission
agrees with a public interest activist group’s
complaints that “No Camping” signs posted at
Malibu city limits could lead to confusion.
The Center for Law in the Public
Interest’s City Project has challenged the signs as an
example of Malibu elitism and an intent to prevent
visitors from being aware of local camping options.
The City Project blog generated widespread
media attention at the same time that the city was locked in
debate with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy over
expanding public camping options in the Santa Monica
Mountains, and Malibu took a public drubbing on the
Internet.
CCC Deputy Director Jack Ainsworth
addressed the signs issue in a letter to City Manager Jim
Thorsen recently. Ainsworth wrote that “the signs, as
currently written, are inconsistent with the city’s
ordinances, LCP, and the Coastal Act.”
He states that “an outright
prohibition of overnight camping, as currently stated on the
signs, would require an amendment to the city’s
LCP” and suggests that the wording could be changed to
“Overnight Camping Allowed Only within Designated
Campgrounds.”
Ainsworth’s letter concludes,
“By changing the sign language and posting new
signs, the city would avoid further confusion, defuse the
current controversy, and bring the signs into compliance with
current city ordinances, the certified LCP and the Coastal
Act.”
