Posted: December 4th, 2007

The Malibu City Council on December 5, 2007, will consider a local coastal program amendment and corollary amendments to the general plan that would prohibit all overnight camping in Malibu parks, and would eliminate public access to Ramirez Canyon Park. The public and Native Americans with ancestral ties to the area would be prohibited from access to public lands.

We support public access to public lands for all. We oppose the limitation of public access to public lands in Malibu.

We support efforts by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority to maximize public access to public lands while ensuring the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures and incomes. We support the Malibu Public Access Enhancement Public Works Plan to increase public access to three parks in Malibu owned by the Conservancy and two parks owned by the National Park Service. The plan includes supervised, ADA-accessible tent camping, new parking areas, trail connections between parks, enhancement of the regional Coastal Slope Trail, and public access to Ramirez Canyon Park.

The City of Malibu derives its name from the Chumash village of Humaliwu. The area now known as Malibu has been the traditional territory of the Chumash people for over 10,000 years. Yet no provisions are made for Native American access in the Malibu proposal. We support the position of the Native American Heritage Commission to protect Native American access to cultural resources, burial grounds, and sites for religious ceremonies sites. We urge Malibu to engage in respectful government to government consultation with Chumash representatives before taking any action.

We support public access to public lands in Malibu under the public trust doctrine, the Coastal Act, civil rights laws, and other federal and state laws. See the short Policy Brief and the detailed article Robert Garcia and Erica Flores Baltodano, Free the Beach! Public Access, Equal Justice, and the California Coast, 2 Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 143 (2005).

Malibu would require the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to purchase $8 million worth of land to order to build an alternative access road into Ramirez Canyon Park. Even if an alternative road could be built, Malibu would allow only the Conservancy limited use of that park. The general public and Native Americans with ancestral ties to the land would be denied access.

Malibu cynically seeks to invoke the recent fires as a justification for limiting public access. Since records have been kept in 1910, not a single wildfire can be traced to a developed campground. The Malibu Parks Public Access Enhancement Plan will actually decrease fire danger in the canyons. Malibu FAQs.

Malibu would not exist but for taxpayers paying for public roads and police and fire protection. Malibu is not above state and federal laws.

The public outside the Malibu area has not had a full and fair opportunity to participate in deciding the future of public access.

We support public access to public lands for all in Malibu.

You can send comments to:

Mr. Jim Thorsen, City Manager

City of Malibu

23815 Stuart Ranch Road

Malibu, CA 90265-4861