





Concerned Citizens React to New Parking Signage

On Oct. 19 and 20, frustrated citizens took to Next Door Neighbor and social media to express their concerns. Here are some postings, for which names have been redacted:

“If you too are wondering why the increase of vans and RVs camping overnight on PCH, it’s because other areas have returned to banning overnight parking, as we should do in all of Malibu and especially along PCH, which is dangerous enough as it is! As of Tuesday, Oct. 22, it appeared the majority of vehicles—including campers, RVs, trucks and cars—that had occupied the shoulder of PCH between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Coastline Drive had vanished—with at least a dozen or more reappearing 1 mile west, parked at Las Tunas Beach within the city of Malibu.”

Citizens noted that was due to the new LA County parking restriction.

There is no official solid data to profile the demographic choosing to park along the PCH, but eyewitnesses report they observe people who seem to be homeless, others who seem to suffer from mental illness, some who want to camp short-term and not pay for a campsite—or who are unable to pay such costs—and a sprinkling of surfers who find parking near the beach convenient for catching waves. Lee informed MALIBU MAGAZINE that The People Concern and other area social service agencies were engaged in outreach efforts to try to assist those who are homeless and parking along the highway.







If Not by Car, Then by Tent

Since short-term parking will now be regulated to some extent by the Coastal Commission, innovative people have taken to pitching tents.

“Good news,” wrote Clarence Chapman, an outspoken resident of the Sunset Mesa community who lives above the highway along Coastline Drive east of Malibu, with a sarcastic email sent to other area residents on Nov. 11. “Our little community of vagrant tent residents is increasing. Last night, a fourth tent was constructed... These structures will not be subject to the upcoming parking restrictions. They are permanent!”

Chapman chatted with MALIBU MAGAZINE about his and other members of Sunset Mesa’s homeowner’s association about the frustrations they have encountered as they’ve tried to work through proper processes and protocols to seek assistance from various governmental agencies.

“We have been trying to get the issues addressed for three long years,” an exasperated Chapman says, noting that he and other area residents “have tried to go through all the proper processes and have done everything that government authorities have asked of us.”

The concerned citizens approached the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and were told it had no jurisdiction to take actions restricting long-term parking along the highway near Sunset Mesa because the area is in an unincorporated area. Efforts by other citizens who asked for the City of Malibu to help were also unavailing—the area is not within the jurisdiction of the City of Malibu or Pacific Palisades. In turn, the county noted that the Coastal Commission had jurisdiction relating to posting signage controlling overnight camping.

Many residents recall seeing signs prohibiting overnight parking in the past. Chapman explained that such signs did indeed exist, but they were torn down by vandals and the Coastal Commission must issue a conditional use permit before any signs regulating parking along the coastline are installed. Now that such signage will soon be posted, people are beginning to pitch tents to undermine regulations prohibiting vehicle traffic, while others are simply defiantly continuing to park along the highway.

Chapman provided MALIBU MAGAZINE with a series of images depicting conditions presenting fire hazards, and he voiced concerns about sanitation and possible criminal activity. He noted that the problems are longstanding and, unfortunately, escalating.

“No one else has my vantage point,” Chapman says. “There was a prostitution operation that lasted for one summer a couple of years ago, and I saw large semi-trucks pull up alongside the highway and call girls running across the highway to meet with the ‘customers.’”

However, “more pressing is the immediate dangerous condition and public health hazard of wildfires that this situation is creating,” Chapman says on Oct. 9 in a letter to the Coastal Commission, even as the Getty Fire threatened the area. “Specifically, this permanent community has been occupied for more than three years by people who have no toilet facilities and no access to energy utilities. Therefore, they must cook and prepare their meals on open-flame grills and bonfires amongst the hillside native plants and tall dry grasses—with Santa Ana winds... The reality of a catastrophic fire, which will likely result in significant loss of life and personal property, loom heavy over our community because of this situation.”

Citing those concerns, Chapman wrote “As evidenced in current conditions, this situation is urgent and the only real solution is prevention, and that begins with restricting beach parking to specified times via posted and enforced parking restrictions.” He adds, “Additionally, as a public land use concern, you would be making available free parking for low-income families who wish to come and enjoy the beach.”

Chapman and others expressed concern that the Coastal Commission, which of course is tasked with the obligation to ensure that all citizens have access to the beach as is guaranteed by the California Constitution, “is ignoring the fact that it has jurisdiction to address land use and instead perceives this as an issue of homeless citizens’ rights for housing.”

Area resident David Estes corroborated Chapman’s concerns concerning a lack of sanitation. “My landscape helper saw an RV come up the hill and use the drain to dump his waste into a drain that goes into the ocean and, when my assistant tried to approach the man asking him what he was doing, the man responded, with expletives, that he should stay away and mind his own business,” Estes says. “Just a little while after that happened, I saw—and took a picture of—the same RV parked back on the PCH where it had been parked before.”