City Consultant Suggests Using Trancas Canyon or Puerco Canyon As Evacuation Routes – Those Are Dead Ends

The City of Malibu has hired a consultant to update the city’s evacuation plans in case of a fire or tsunami – and the consultant has made some revelations.

For example, Caltrans is stepping back from its trial balloons about replacing the center left turn lane with traffic calming medians in the center of the city.

But the plan needs some local citizen input … to fix glaring errors like several dead end roads listed as evacuation routes.

Cities in severe high fire risk zones are required under state law to evaluate their evacuation plans … and submit those plans to the state for approval. 

Malibu has hired a consultant … among his recommendations are a continuous center lane on Pacific Coast Highway … with overhead signs designating it an emergency evacuation lane. 

But there are parts of PCH where the highway is not wide enough for that. And while the report suggests widening the highway there, it does not suggest what to do if widening PCH is impossible.

Putting one direction of traffic on the wrong side of the road is not a safe option … there are never enough traffic controls or cops to implement that in an emergency.

The consultant also recommends reconfiguring the intersection of PCH at Kanan Dume Road … to allow two turns lanes off of either direction of PCH to turn up the hill.

It does not mention the immediate bottleneck there … just up the hill … where the city failed to widen Kanan Dume Road.

12 years ago … the rebuilt the downhill runaway truck lane for downhill traffic.

And in doing that … the city significantly narrowed the uphill road lane.

City manager Jim Thorsen told the Public Safety Commission that widening the uphill lane on Kanan would be an immediate city priority.

We’ve had five city managers since then.  The uphill lane is still a tight squeeze. 

The new consultant report makes the same errors that past reports have made.  For example … in 2020 the city identified the nearby cities that would have to assist Malibu if we have to evacuate the city.

Neither that study … nor the new one … even mentioned the City of Los Angeles … which controls three miles of PCH below Pacific Palisades.

That’s just below where panicked LA residents had their cars bulldozed out of the way … as they jammed Sunset Boulevard trying to escape onto PCH. 

Evacuating Malibu to the east will require cooperation from the LAPD and LA DOT … their Department of Transportation. 

LA has never cooperated with the City of Malibu on PCH traffic matters … never. 

The new Malibu hazards assessment and evacuation plan concludes that 22 hundred houses here are on roads with only one way out.

And it predicts that Kanan Dume Road, Malibu Canyon Road, and Topanga Canyon Boulevard will jam in fires or tsunamis.

The short term answer … move people out well in advance of the fire …if possible. 

The long term answer … widen Pacific Coast Highway via more reversible directional lanes with overhead changeable directional signals.  And … change the lane configurations on PCH at both Kanan and  Malibu Canyon … to allow two lanes to turn off of PCH. 

The new city report says Caltrans is revisiting its earlier proposal to put medians on PCH … given the needs for using that center lane for fire evacuations.  But the city report does not mention what Caltrans or the city will do where there is no way to widen the road … like at the tunnel in Santa Monica or the twisting road at Point Mugu.

And what about converting PCH or canyon roads into temporary one way evacuation routes???

Topanga Canyon does that on their highway up the canyon.   But that;s a two-lane road, not a five lane highway.  And there are never enough sheriff’s deputies to handle traffic control duties. 

So what to do?

Evacuate people and livestock early.

Promote early evacuation of the general public on severe Red Flag days. 

Consider the needs of vulnerable populations, such as individuals with mobility limitations … and school kids. 

Evacuate using buses. 

None of those solutions can prompt anything more than eye rolling from anyone familiar with Malibu residents. 

And one real groaner from the consultant … 

He recommends that use Big Rock Road … Busch Drive … Tuna Canyon Road …  and Trancas Canyon Road.

Good luck with that.  Those are dead ends …

The proposed maps and plans go up for public comment Wednesday at 5 at the city Public Safety Commission meeting at city hall..

YMCA Gives Up Even Giving Lip Service To Malibu

Malibu is being formally abandoned by the YMCA.

The Pacific Palisades-Malibu  YMCA is formally dropping the word Malibu from its title. 

It’s not like the so-called Malibu Y ever really did much for Malibu.

The Y has never … in 30 years we’ve been here … offered any outreach or membership drive in Malibu. 

It’s building … tucked way up in the Palisades … was virtually unknown to Malibu residents. 

The Palisades Y offered child care … adult recreations services … a community center … all sorts of things up there … 20 miles from the heart of Malibu. 

It burned down in the Palisades Fire. 

And now … it is dropping the word Malibu from its building name. 

It’s now named after the Lowe family … which apparently wrote a big generous contribution to rebuild. 

There’s also a  $1 million grant from Bank of America.

The newly renamed Lowe Family YMCA is a branch of the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles.

KBUU has asked them … via email …. what about Malibu?

No reply. 

The nearest YMCA to the population center of Malibu is the modern recreation center … the Yarrow YMCA … on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Westlake Village. 

It’s run by the YMCA of Southeastern Ventura County. 

The YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles … apparently pulling out of Malibu. 

Peter Thiel Wants To Buy Your Vote Again

Billionair Peter Thiel want sto buy your vote … to try to defeat the proposed California tax on billionaires.

Peter Thiel has just donated $3 million to a committee opposing a proposed initiative to slap a one time tax on billionaires. 

This is the first wave of a flood of Silicon Valley money … expected to wash over California this year.

The contribution went to a political committee of a state business lobby, the California Business Roundtable.

The New York Times reports that opponents of the wealth tax estimate that more than $75 million will be spent to try to defeat it.

A union of health care workers has come up with he billionaire’s tax to offset federal budget cuts that threaten California’s health care system. 

If voters approve it … California residents worth more than $1 billion would pay a tax of 5 percent of their assets.

And it would apply retroactively to anyone who lived in the state as of two weeks ago.