Conservancy to ask Coastal Commission to allow camping
SM MOUNTAINS The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy will ask the California Coastal Commission to allow overnight camping in the hills around Malibu, despite a move by elected officials there to prohibit such activity out of fear that it may spark more wildfires.
Joseph Edmiston, executive director of the conservancy, said the Malibu City Council’s decision earlier this week to prohibit overnight camping was an attempt to keep people out of the area, saying a “group of affluent homeowners” used threats of a recall to pressure city officials into voting in their favor.
“The clear intention of the Coastal Act is to protect the interests of all citizens of California and provide access to these unique public resources,” Edmiston said. “Obviously, the city wants the open space and trails purchased with taxpayer dollars, but they won’t allow us to provide the parking and amenities that will permit anyone but local residents to use them.”
Both Malibu officials and its residents con-tend the ban on camping is not about NIMBYism (not in my backyard), but rather about protecting people and their property from harm posed by wildfires. The city has been struck by three wildfires in the last year, including one on Nov. 24 that consumed more than 4,900 acres and destroyed 53 homes. It was Malibu’s worst fire since 1993.
“People are really afraid,”said Councilman Ken Kearsley, whose home was nearly burned down in the Corral Fire last month, the flames coming “right to our doorstep.”
“Some of this was fear-mongering and became political, but the bottom line is I was elected to represent the people and this is what they wanted,” said Kearsley, who was in favor of allowing some overnight camping as a way to appease the conservancy, which is planning to go directly to the Coastal Commission, where Kearsley believes it will be victorious.
“I think it’s only a matter of time, perhaps a year or more,before the commission gives (the conservancy) what (they) want,” Kearsley said.
The conservancy and the council had reached a compromise that is now lost. The compromise would have created more trails and allowed overnight camping at Corral Canyon and Charmlee Wilderness Park, a city-owned park near the Ventura County border, and would have allowed the conservancy to hold events such as weddings and conferences at its Ramirez Canyon Park headquarters.
Now, Kearsley and other members of the council fear that the conservancy will push for more than 40 campsites instead of the 24 the council was willing to give. As a condition of allowing those campsites,the conservancy had agreed to have rangers patrol them 24 hours a day. Campfires would have also been prohibited during “red flag”days, when the chance of a fire igniting is high.
Without the compromise, it is unclear if the conservancy will make those concessions.
“The ball is in the Santa Monica Conservancy’s court,” Kearsley said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 8, 2007. Read the original PDF.