Residents in private residential Malibu neighborhoods are seeking legal help from the City to help defend their easements from being invaded and circumvented by Joe Edmiston and his powerful agency of the Mountain Resource and Conservation Authority (MRCA).
Elizabeth Stevens from Sycamore Park came before the city council Monday night to sound the alarm that Edmiston and the MRCA are systematically defying Malibu’s LCPs and trying to turn their residential zones into recreational zones with a trail head for public use.
Every neighborhood that Edmiston is encroaching on has had to hire lawyers to protect their property rights and is asking the city to come together to enforce its LCPs. Malibu neighborhoods that are being thrashed from the public, all of which has been documented to pass through properties leaving trash, spraying graffiti, drinking, smoking, urinating and defecting without any oversight from the MRCA to provide security, trash cans or bathroom facilities.
Whether it is Winding Way, Ramirez Canyon, Sycamore Canyon or the new trail head development in Puerco Canyon, each neighborhood has mounting legal bills and Elizabeth Stevens reminded the council that Edmiston is this is the most powerful unelected official who runs two agencies and is relentless for picking off each neighborhood one by one. “I don’t think that this is fair, that we must handle this individually. I think the city should be coming and supporting us.” said Stevens.
Brittany Stevens followed reiterated that Malibu cannot allow residential zones to be turned into multi use or recreational zones. She asked “How you would react if someone bought the property next door to you and built an amusement park?”
Edmiston has purchased a residential property and is trying to change it into something else which defies the law, ” This is precedent setting and that is why we are asking you to look in the matter.” said Stevens.
But City Attorney Christi Hogin who is also working for the City of Palos Verdes has been mixed up in other questionable and ethical issues concerning property rights in P.V. and did not seem optimistic in aiding, but instead said “Parks are permitted uses in most of our residential zones, so they may not need a coastal development permit for it.” But added that the city planning commission was on top of it.
Mayor pro-tem Rick Mullen lives in one of the impacted neighborhoods relayed that he understood their plight saying that this fight with the MRCA is extremely stressful and it takes a lot of money to fight in court, but reiterated that the council’s job was to look out for the rural tranquility of our residents. Mullen admitted that special deals have been made between developers and land owners without regards to the impacts of the neighborhoods He encouraged all residents in impacted areas to voice themselves at council meetings.
-Steve Woods
