Caltrans And Deputies Add Second Lane At Checkpoint, But Hated Speed Bumps Will Remain For General Traffic

Late Tuesday, Caltrans and ther county sheriff’s office announced that two lanes will be open tomorrow to ease the traffic jam at the Malibu checkpoint, a traffic jam caused by the installation of sharp speed bumps to slow down traffic.

But the speed bumps must stay to dissuade speeders, one of whom was clocked at 76 miles per hour, said sheriff’s Capt. Jennifer Seetoo.

During daylight hours, trucks will be allowed to use the right lane, which does not have the speed bumps. General traffic will still have to go over the speed bumps, which are actually knobs inserted into ther pavement, used to prevent terrorists from approaching at locations a bit more dangerous than Billionaires Beach.

The plan is to allow heavy trucks to use the right lane and skirt the bumps.  General traffic will continue to do the Billionaires Beach Bumps up to the control station.

DOGE And Congress Start Dismembering Santa Monica Mountains Natl Rec Area

This morning in Washington … the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area may get sacrificed on the alter of DOGE.

The House Committee on Natural Resources and House Appropriations Committee for Interior will discuss a number of proposals by the Trump Administration to slash the federal budget … today in DC.

One of those projects is to eliminate what the Trump Administration calls “minor” national park areas.

On the table … transferring the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to state or local park agencies to manage.

That could be California State Parks.

Or it could be the MRCA … the Mountains Resource Conservation Authority … 

MRCA might end up controlling the state and federal lands around Malibu.

Jim Hines … a Ventura County resident who is a lobbyist for the Sierra Club … says the House committees are likely to vote this morning to eliminate the federal park.

Already … its biologists studying the mountain lions in the mountains above malibu are being told they will be eliminated from federal employment.

Hines says the parkland might be transferred to county parks agencies … which he says are already stretched thin and cannot run the county parks that they already ave.

Same problem with California State Parks. 

He says the Ventura County parks departmentcannot even afford to run the parks we have right now let alone take on vast new areas of land.

Congressional staffers tell Hines that DOGE management who have been assigned to the Interior Department are pushing this idea.

Says he  ….”how does Santa Monica Mountains State Recreation Area or Santa Monica Mountains Local Park Agency Recreation Area sound?”
Sounds a whole lot like the MRCA. 

DOGE Targets LA County Anti-Homelessness Program That Aided Malibu

On Friday … President Trump released a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year that would take a chainsaw to social, environmental and education programs. 

CalMatters reports that one project … that is used in Malibu to help get homeless people off the Malibu streets … was called out by the president. … as a poster child for waste of federal funds. 

That would be Section 8 … and a special LA County program used to remove homeless persons from the streets of the westside. 

The White House pointed specifically to a $6.7 million grant made to Los Angeles County to fund infrastructure planning, public transit-oriented housing.

The county’s funding proposal said that project would reverse the region’s “legacy of past systemic racism.”

That LA County program was specifically mentioned by the president;’s budget director as woke and wasteful. 

The largest single cut in federal housing policy would target the Housing Choice Voucher program. Better known as Section 8,.

The White House is proposing shifting responsibility for the administration Section 8 to states, while cutting its funding in half.

It also proposes a two-year limit on how long a single person can receive help. 

With soaring rents outpacing people’s incomes, low-income tenants aren’t going to be able to magically earn enough money to start paying rent in two years … one housing expert tells CalMatters. 

“You’d be looking at millions of people who would be out on the street virtually overnight,” said Matt Schwartz … director of California Housing Partnership.

 “There’s no way states could maintain the same level of assistance.”

City Hires Yet Another Temporary Department Chief: Planning Gets Third Director In 2 Years

One day after announcing a new temporary deputy city manager … the city of Malibu has hired a new temporary planning director. 

Daniel Hortert is working for the city on a contract basis for three years.

Hortert had been working as the interim assistant planning director … and for three years he has been assigned to Malibu by the private consulting firm he works for. 

Hortert introduced himself at last night’s Planning Commission meeting. 

HORTERT throughout Marin County. 

Hortert replaces Maureen Tamuri, a temporary planning department head who had replaced longtime planning director Richard Mollica.

Mollica resigned in June 2023.

25 Houses So far Make It Thru Planning Department, But No Blueprints In For Plan Check Yet

As the four month anniversary of the Palisades Fire is this week … this is how the rebuilding process is moving so far. 

Malibu lost more than 700 houses to the Palisades Fire … four months ago.

700 houses.

Malibu … like most cities … has a two step process for getting a house permit.

First … a person wanting to build something has to get the planning department’s approval … that the proposal complies with the zoning … and does not encroach on any property lines.

After getting planning permits … the architect can have expensive and extensive blueprints drawn up … showing exact building plans.

That’s called plan check. 

As of yesterday … 25 people have submitted their plans to the city planning department … to see if their concepts comply with zoning rules.

Of those 25 … 15 are for houses that are pretty much copies of what used to be there.

The other 7 are proposing small increases in size. … state law allows up to 10 percent. 

So 25 houses have made it through planning verification … which took an average of three weeks.

All 25 of those houses are now back in the hands of the architects and drafts designers … None of those building blueprints have been brought back.

That data is of late last month.

So far … no houses are in plan check. 

The city is awaiting a deluge of rebuilding applications and plans … extra workers have been hired to process all the drawings.

But the deluge has yet to arrive …  

There is uncertainty about Caltrans requirements for roadway stabilization.

Many of the 330 houses on the ocean front will have to build retaining walls to support the state highway … 

And the issue of how to dispose of sewage from oceanfront houses is far from being resolved. 

As bad as the destruction is in Malibu … it is just a drop in the bucket countywide.

17 thousand houses were burned down that day … in January.  

MRCA Involved In Deal By Lot Owner To Build Trail Link From Sycamore Park To Escondido Falls

The California Coastal Commission has once again postponed a vote on a single family house application from a landowner in Escondido Canyon.

This project appears to be a backdoor effort by the MRCA to use Via Escondido as a second public access route to Escondido Falls .. that overcrowded tourist attraction above Paradise Cove.

The landowner is apparently trying to get a construction permit for a house modified … a house that would be built on Via Escondido Drive at the top of the Sycamore Park subdivision.  

The landowner has apparently made a deal with the MRCA … the Mountains Resource and Conservation Authority … to build a controversial trail across the lot … next to the house. 

It appears that the homeowner would construct a 3 foot wide trail … 1600 feet long ….

The trail would connect via Escondido Drive to the Escondido Falls Trail.

And that would open up Via Escondido for public access to the overcrowded waterfalls area.

Via Escondido is basically a series of connected driveways … private property. 

The MRCA is apparently hoping to use a deal with the owner of the proposed house … to allow the public to use the house’s legal easement on the private road … 

The MRCA wants to build retaining walls, switchbacks, silt fences, and trail signs … and move  315 cubic yards of mountainside … to connect the road to the trail. ,

The Commission’s enforcement division has opened an investigation into potential Coastal Act violations committed by the homebuilder. 

The suspicion from area residents is that the commission is using the threat of law enforcement  for illegal development …. against the landowner … 

And the land owner is making a deal with the MRCA … to settle the issue. 

SM May End 90 Minute Grace Period In Downtown Garages

Santa Monica’s city government is strapped for money … and is on the way to eliminating free parking for downtown businesses. 

Last week … the city down there revealed several restructuring scenarios that would eliminate the longstanding 90-minute free parking period in favor of flat rates. 

Instead of the 90 minutes free parking … everyone would have to pay 2 dollars for 3 hours of parking.

On weekends ,… that would go up to 3 dollars. 

The santa Monica Daily Press newspaper reports that longer stays would become cheaper … with the daily maximum reduced from $20 to $16.

Several downtown businesses are arguing against eliminating free 90 minute parking. 

The City of Santa Monica is casting around for more revenue.

Its downtown has become rundown … its sales tax revenues are down …

The city council has to come up with 122 million dollars to pay victims of sex abuse in a city-run police athletic league gymnasium … a pattern of abuse that the city allowed to occur for years.

Santa Monica city officials may be looking at the generous payments that they make to the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District … for the school in Santa Monica. 

And that may explain why the school district is fighting Malibu school district independence … trying to get a better financial deal from Malibu.

The Domoic Acid Bloom Is Worst Ever and Shows No Signs Of Diminishing

The southern California coast is experiencing the worst domoic acid contamination in history. 

Warning oceans are responsible.

Marine animals are dying in such numbers … sea lions … dolphins … whales.

They are dying in front of the eyes of lifeguards … some of whom need to take days off to deal with the emotional scene.

The acid is a natural occurrence … and acid that builds up in tiny marine animals that work their way up the food chain. 

How bad is it???
John Warner is the boss at the Marine Mammal Center in San Pedro … 

He told  KCRW’s Danielle Cheriguayo this one is bad … really bad … and getting worse.

DOMOIC ACID 2 71269

That was John Warner … chief operating officer at the Marine Mammal Center in San Pedro … 

Speaking with KCRW’s Danielle Cheriguayo.

And he has bad news … the levels of domoic acid in the food chain are still increasing.  

KBUU Now Covering Eastern Malibu, Signal Will Get Improved Further

This reminder … 

The KBUU eastern transmitter is now functioning. 

But our signal is not yet perfected. 

Our synchronization is off a little bit.

Our engineers are fine tuning the computers … and we should have the signal improved soon.

We invite you to try tuning in KBUU in the Civic Center area … and as far east as Las Flores Canyon Riad … if you can get there.