Posted on 12/02/2006 7:46:39 PM PST by calcowgirl
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy approved a controversial plan this week to further open the rugged hills of Malibu for camping, hiking and other activities, heightening a battle with canyon residents and city leaders over public access.
Malibu city leaders and other opponents have harshly criticized the access plan, contending that greater use of hillsides and canyons would result in more traffic, heightened fire risk and damage to wildlife habitat. City officials also say the conservancy, which plans to present its proposal to the California Coastal Commission, is trying to circumvent local land-use laws.
Proponents have accused residents of seeking to maintain the canyons as an elitist preserve.
The plan calls for completing the long-planned Coastal Slope Trail, establishing 30 campsites in Ramirez, Escondido and Corral canyons and building a parking lot for about 30 vehicles in Escondido Canyon.
It would also allow the conservancy to resume holding weddings and other events at its Ramirez Canyon headquarters compound, a 22.5-acre haven that was once the estate of Barbra Streisand. The conservancy recently suspended those events after canyon residents successfully challenged them in court.
Since its creation in 1980 by state lawmakers, the conservancy has spent $450 million to preserve more than 60,000 acres of Southern California parkland, much of it within the coastal area of the Santa Monica Mountains. Many Malibu residents have alternately admired the conservancy's success and resented its tactics.
Joseph T. Edmiston, the conservancy's executive director, said the public "has a right to use the resources it has purchased." The stepfather of a severely disabled son, Edmiston said he has an interest in making public parklands more accessible to the disabled.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
PING to the SoCal elitist preserve. Your tax dollars at work.
I saw an article linked on Rough&Tumble.com (rtumble.com) from the LA Slimes that Land Trusts and Conservancies grabbing land and rights activity is up by 50% this year!!!
The troll-traffic has been way down. ;-)
If you are ever in the area make sure you drive up Yerba Buena Road off PCH into the Boney Mountain area. Far and away the most scenic and least inhabited area of the Santa Monica mountains. Its a National Rec. area so the do-gooder environmentalists haven't put up a hundred different signs saying do this, don't do that etc. Just great trails and scenery.
http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=84
I think it's only going up from here.
Remember the quote from Assemblyman Doug La Malfa describing Prop 84?
"What water bond? You mean the land acquisition bond?"
Well nobody can say that some of us haven't tried to warn the rest of FReeperdom!!! (mostly to no avail, unfortunately)
I grew up wandering around those mountains. My uncle lived at the top of one canyon; my highschool boyfriend at the top of another. I remember hiking up to small waterfalls, etc. It truly is beautiful. I used to own property in the area until the Coastal Commission made it all but useless.
All land should be owned and the owner allowed to do whatever he wishes with it. That's my view.
thanks!
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