MRCA Plans New Trail (Also On Private Roads) To Increase Visitors To Overcrowded Canyon

Written by on January 7, 2019

The MRCA reveals plans to drastically increase visitor numbers in a Malibu canyon already plagued by overuse and visitor pollution.

MRCA plans to construct a new trail between Escondido Falls and Pacific Coast Highway.

Except most of the trail will not be a trail at all … it will be the private road owned and maintained by homeowners … called Murphy Way.

Details: 

In an environmental impact summary … the parks agency from over the hill claims no serious envirtonmental degradation would occur by building the trail.

Escondido canyon already is overused … littered with trash … graffitti in the trees that have not been torn up.

But MRCA envisions bringing more people in … by building a loop trail …

They would extend the existing … controversial trail up one private road … Winding Way. 

The new trail would then go west … climb a steep hill … a 23 percent grade … to Murphy Way … and then use that second private road to get back to PCH.

No new parking would be created … the existing jammed parking lot would be used.

Also … MRCA plans to park cars on dangerous … 50 mile per hour PCH … where most of the roadside parking is usually taken up by Paradise Cove beach users on weekends.

Incredibly … the MRCA says it does not expect many people to use the new trail … because it is so steep.

That flies in the face of overcrowded trails elsewhere in the Santa Monica Mountains … which have exploded in popularity precisely because of their steepness.

The environmental document is open for public comment before it is rubber stamped by the MRCA board … which has no vote from Malibu.

We have a link to it … on the KBUU website.

Link: https://mrca.ca.gov/about/land-use-planning-documents/


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