Malibu Claims In Lawsuit That MRCA Does Not Have Legal Rights To Private Roads

Affected Residents Asks City: What Took You So Long?

Lawsuit Alleges That MRCA Is Violating Coastal Law By Allowing Hikers To Trample ESHA –

Agoura Hills Officials Downplay Their Written Plan To Close Kanan Rd During Fires –

Deputies And Police Dogs Not Hurt In 3-Car Pileup –

Cal Gov Race All Of A Sudden No Longer Has Republican Only Chance –

SM Allows Franchises In Downtown Core, And The Chains Are Coming

Mikke Pierson’s Plan For Burrowing House On ABC TV ‘Shark Tank’

Malibu has sued the MRCA … again … this time over the ownership of two private roads that have become enormously popular hiking trails… causing traffic dangers on PCH.

The lawsuit is against the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority … the MRCA … and its sister organization … the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Winding Way and Murphy Way are the issue right now … but other MRCA trails in other canyons are also in question.

They are dead end streets across private property … not owned by the government.

The MRCA claims that their ownership of land up at the top of the streets grants them a public easement … a right to open the streets up to the public.

And in this age of Instagram … the streets have become Instagram destinations … with hundred of people daily walking across private property.

And those guests are parking along PCH … where there is no safe place to walk on the road or to cross it.

One person was killed on PCH at Winding Way last February. 

The city says there is a long-documented pattern of unsafe and inadequate trail management by the MRCA.

The city claims that, as a municipal government, it took ownership  the easements when the city incorporated …. In 1993.

That would make a property transfer to the MRCA … attempted by Los Angeles County in 1998 … void.

The lawsuit seeks quiet title … an order by the court to transfer ownership of the trails from the county and the MRCA to the city.

There has been no early reaction from the Mountains Resource and Conservation Authority.

Affected Residents Asks City: What Took You So Long?

Residents along the two private streets are reacting by asking … what took the city so long?

For years … they had been putting up with bullying by the MRCA … they say.

The MRCA has been putting up signs on their property … 

The MRCA has been ordering landowners to remove their fences and mailboxes from their front yards.

Some residents have been threatened with 11 thousand dollar per day fines.

Neighbors who objected were threatened with fines, encroachment violations, and income cases, years of actual ongoing litigation.

One canyon over … a similar issue has resulted in the MRCA actually demanding 11 thousand dollars per day in administrative fines … payable now. 

That is in the Sycamore Park neighborhood … another trail access point into the Ramirez Canyon waterfall.

Sycamore Park is not at issue in this new city lawsuit.

On Winding Way and Murphy Way … homeowners had hired blue chip attorneys … who researched the land ownership hisotry and said evidence shows the MRCA does not own the easements.

More than two years ago … they presented this evidence to the City of Malibu.

But the city tried to negotiate with the MRCA … come up with some sort of compromise.

The city kept the matter confidential … as the problems surrounding the trails and PCH safety worsened.

The trails were energetically promoted by the MRCA, attracting thousands of visitors to overcrowded fragile parklands.

The result: dangerous conditions on Pacific Coast Highway, and defacement of private property.

And MRCA threats against private property owners.

The question today from many of them: Why did it take the City of Malibu over 2 years to take action? 

Why were small private residential streets used as trailheads, when alternative access points existed?

The City was given concrete proof the city owns these trails, the information was vetted by at least three outside law firms, yet years passed without decisive action….until now.

The residents are asking … what took so long?

Lawsuit Alleges That MRCA Is Violating Coastal Law By Allowing Hikers To Trample ESHA

The 257-page complaint alleges that MRCA’s management has resulted in environmental damage to sensitive coastal resources.

That MRCA fails to comply with the requirements of the California Coastal Act.

Not enough trash removal.

Failure to enforce boundaries protecting public open space. 

In a press release … the city said Malibu remains committed to open-space preservation, public trail access, and collaborative stewardship of the Santa Monica Mountains. 

“Commencement of this legal action does not change that commitment; it reaffirms it,” the city said. 

The lawsuit seeks quiet title … or an order by the court, transferring ownership or any interest in the trails from the county and the MRCA to the city.

This is the second lawsuit filed by Malibu against the MRCA.  

A February lawsuit blames the parks agency for failing to perform adequate brush clearance on its parkland holdings in eastern Malibu.

Tha helped the palisades Fire destroy the eastern end of the city … Malibu claims.

Agoura Hills Officials Downplay Their Written Plan To Close Kanan Rd During Fires

Agoura Hills officials are answering questions about their plans to close Kanan Road … under some scenarios … during fires.

As KBUU reported yesterday .. the planning commission up there is going to consider a new safety plan for that city … which sits between Malibu and the 101 Freeway at Kanan Road. 

And buried deep within that plan … its says Agoura Hills will close Kanan Road under some conditions … 

Just how they would pull that off is not specified. 

But some residents of the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu say it is proof that Agoura Hills has overdeveloped the area.

Hundreds of apartments are under construction next to onramps to the 101 freeway at Kanan … a vital safety escape from Malibu and the mountains if another Woolsey-type fire occurs. 

The city of Agoura Hills yesterday spent some time answering KBUU;’s questions about their plan.

They said they are making provisions for emergency traffic out of Malibu.

But their traffic counts do not add in any possible surge in traffic out of Malibu … in fact … Agoura Hills says they do not expect a traffic surge out of the mountains towards the 101.

They estimate only 900 cars per hour would use northbound Kanan in an emergency …

900 cars per hour is the normal flow. 

The Agoura Hills emergency plan does not apply any risk data about people fleeing out of Malibu.

A city spokeswoman tells KBUU … 

“It would not be appropriate to apply Malibu’s risk data to Agoura Hills’ planning purposes.”

Residents of the Santa Monica mountains have been screaming for years about too much residential development along the 101 near Kanan. 

They tell KBUU they plan to oppose the Agoura Hills emergency plan … before the Agioura Hills planning commission.

The meeting is Thursday night at 6 at the Agoura Hills City Hall. 

Driver Learns How To Quickly Depreciate A $250K Porsche

A 250 thousand dollar Porsche is a crumpled chunk of plastic and metal in a tow yard this morning … having flown off Saddle Peak Road yesterday.

The late afternoon crash caused two men to be flown out to a hospital.

They appear to have survived … the Porsche … not so much. 

It came to rest next to a ghost under construction on Hovenweep Lane. 

Deputies And Police Dogs Not Hurt In 3-Car Pileup –

Cal Gov Race All Of A Sudden No Longer Has Republican Only Chance –

SM Allows Franchises In Downtown Core, And The Chains Are Coming

Mikke Pierson’s Plan For Burrowing House On ABC TV ‘Shark Tank’ Tonight

Three Ventura County sheriff’s deputies .. and their patrol dogs … escaped injury in an embarrassing chain reaction crash yesterday north of Oxnard.

The three deputies were heading back from patrol dog training … on Highway 118 … in three separate cars.

The first one stopped.

The second one stopped.

The third one didn’t.

One car was badly damaged … had to be towed. 

The other two were dented. 

The CHP is investigating. 

Cal Gov Race All Of A Sudden No Longer Has Republican Only Chance

The California governor’s race all of a sudden has a very different face.

Two top candidates have emerged for California’s June primary, a major shift in the state’s crowded governor’s race.

It shows Democratic candidate Tom Steyer leading with 21% of likely voters.

Republican candidate Steve Hilton is 18%.

Add up all the votes for democrat candidates … and the voters are favoring democrats 56 percent.

Republican front runners have 26 percent of the vote.

18 percent are undecided.

This poll was taken a]severlal days ago before Eric Swalwell self destructed.

He got 9 percent of the vote.

After Steyer at 21 percent … the next democrat is Swalwell at 9 … and Katie Porter at 8 percent.

All the other democrats re at 5 percent or less..

the next governor shoudkl stand uo against President trump … according to 58 percent of the California electorate. 

This poll was conducted by Survey USA on behalf off the San Diego Union Tribune… and San Diego TV station ABC10.

It appears to be scientifically valid. 

SM Allows Franchises In Downtown Core, And The Chains Are Coming

Santa Monica has repealed its ban on fast food franchises in the downtown area.

First to move in … Yogurtland.

It got ousted from its location on Arizona Avenue next to the Third Street promenade … but is reopening on the promenade soon.

Next to move in … Taco Bell.

Not just any Taco Bell … but an upscale Taco Bell Cantina … 

The Santa Monica Daily Press newspaper reports the upscale taco Bell will serve tapas.

Also  … beer, wine and frozen cocktails spiked with rum, tequila or vodka. It’s going to replace one of the two British themed bars on Santa Monica Boulevard … the Britannia. 

Also appearing soon on Third Street .. Raising Canes. 

Mikke Pierson’s Plan For Burrowing House On ABC TV ‘Shark Tank’ Tonight

Malibu West resident Mikke Pierson is appearing on network television tonight … prime time. 

Its the ABC TV show Shark Tank.

Pierson is a business consultant … and he has been working for two years on a business … called HiberTeC homes. 

Tonight at 9 … Pierson will explain the plan … which has real Malibu applications. 

We interviewed him.

HIBERTEC 71971

 

REPORTER: “Would you please explain to the vast KBUU listening audience what your concept is?”

PIERSON: “So the concept here – and it’s not my concept it’s Holden Force, the inventor’s – is a house that actually disappears into a vault when a fire or tornado or some other such disaster comes.

“And hides it in a vault only to resurface after the disaster is gone.”

REPORTER: “Did you take it to ABC or did they actually come and approach you?

PIERSON: “They actually came and approached us.

“We had talked about it very little, but they had been a little bit in the trade press somewhere I don’t remember where.

“So they must’ve come across it somehow, but to be honest, I have no idea how.

“They came and asked us how to apply.”

REPORTER:  “So no spoilers, but was it fun being on TV? 

PIERSON: “It actually had one of the most fun days I’ve had in a very long time. It was a long and intense day.”

“I left that day with my jaw from smiling. It was a quite an experience …. once in a lifetime.”

REPORTER: “so the question I guess everyone has is, did you get to meet Jimmy Kimmel?

PIERSON: “Hah hah.  Everyone has that question? I did not know that.”

So the HiberTec concept … a house that lowers itself into a vault when a fire approaches. 

The house seals itself up. 

When the fire is gone … the house unfolds its protective covering and levitates back uo to the surface.

You can watch Pierson make his pitch t the investors… tonight at 9 on channel ABC7,

Or stream it later on Hulu.

Mild Santa Ana Poised For Friday

A 6 millibar Santa Ana wind event is setting up for Thursday night into Friday.

The Santa Monica Mountain tops might see 45 mph gusts.

But this is only a moderate wind event … as Santa Anas go.

KBUU On Hiatus Next 4 Weekdays

This note from the radio station … the KBUU Newscasts will go on hiatus tomorrow thru the middle of next week.

We have some family time this week involving Disneyland and a two year old. 

And next week we have radio station business out of town. 

Democracy Now shifts to the morning drive … 7 to 9 … next few days. 

Weather And Surf For The Malibu

The swells today are puny .. 2 feet out of the south southwest … 205 degrees … at a 15 second interval.

The minor high tide is at 8:31 … 6.2 feet.

Low tide is at 2:30 … 1.2 feet.

And at 8:45 tonight … the major high tide … at just over 7 feet.

The ocean iwater s 63 degrees … that’s 6 degrees above normal.

Air … 64.

And this report from New Zealand … a historic, huge swell is about to hit this weekend.

On Sunday they will have some waves on the Coromandel Peninsula peaking at 20 feet …. maybe up to 29 feet.