Coastal Commission accepts new Malibu pocket beach in sand-theft deal Play

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday created a new public beach in eastern Malibu, giving a Broad Beach landowner a reduced fine for having brazenly stolen sand and rocks on a Fourth of July to shore up his retaining wall.

By an 8-0 vote, the commissioners accepted a vacant beachfront lot in eastern Malibu just east of the old Moonshadows site. Sixteen miles away in western Malibu, landowner Mark Attanasio could have faced a $12 million fine for stealing the sand. Attanasio paid $2 million for the burned-out lot — little more than a rocky cliff below the Pacific Coast Highway with a cluster of burned-out concrete columns, crashing surf, and a cliff up to the highway.

The deal was accepted even though state officials say the beachfront cliff came with a buried septic tank and other hazardous debris. It may cost state taxpayers between $1 million and $2 million to clean up at some point in the future.

In the days leading up to the meeting, the Coastal Commission refused to tell the public where the new public beach would actually be located. KBUU broke the news Wednesday that it will sit on two lots east of the ruined beach poles that used to support Moonshadows, the restaurant. The new park will be west of Big Rock, at the eastern end of the straightaway in front of Moonshadows.

Although Coastal staff told the Commission that this is the only coastal access point for six miles of eastern Malibu beachfront, neighbors called in to point out that both ends of the Moonshadows parking lot were public access ways dating back for decades, but they had been kept locked up because they were in bad shape.

Three Malibu residents called in to the Coastal Commission Thursday to speak against the planned public beach: no safe parking, not enough room for a beach, and a steep rock climb to reach the water from PCH. Coastal Commission staffer Robert Moddelmog dismissed that simply as Malibu being Malibu, wanting to keep the public out.

"You've heard a little bit about why it's so hard and challenging for the public to purchase these properties, is because there may be some pushback from the residents there that may or may not want the public there," he said.

Moddelmog said the creation of a public beach on PCH with only three parking places and no safe pedestrian access is not going to be a problem. "We feel like any public access is important. And even if there may be one nearby, it spreads out the access, so you don't have a situation like one of the commenters said where there might be traffic. It spreads the access out." So creating a new public beach at the eastern end of Malibu will actually ease congestion and solve parking issues — that's what he said.

One official told the commission that partner agencies are ready to build a staircase down to the beach off the side of PCH. That is shorthand for the MRCA, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

Thursday, one Coastal Commissioner noted there will be an enormous, expensive problem with cleaning up this new public beach. It's a burned-out foundation of a house with dozens of damaged concrete support columns standing like the ruins of Pompeii, and a cliff leading up to PCH. Commissioner Ray Jackson worried that the state is actually looking at a donated gift that may cost the taxpayers millions.

"I certainly appreciate anyone's willingness to donate coastal property for public benefit. But before we call this a gift, I want to understand exactly what the public is receiving and really what obligations come with it. What lies beneath this property? I think we were told there's a closed septic, but what else is there? And who's going to be responsible for the leach fields, utilities, contaminated soil? What's there and who's cleaning it up?"

Coastal Commission staff said they don't know. Commission staffer Aaron McClendon said the worries can wait. The MRCA is going to take over the role of cleaning up the site, and they'll be back with a full report at some point in the future. "We have reached out to some of our agency partners who've already expressed a willingness to accept the property. We're looking at this sort of for the long term."

But in the meantime, there will be a view of the ocean that was never there before.

Getting back to the sand theft at Broad Beach, the Coastal Commission was shown video of a gigantic excavator — a huge machine out in the ocean scooping up rocks, state property, to put behind the seawall owned by Attanasio. Commissioner Jackson asked the coastal staffer: was the guy who stole the sand getting off too cheap, donating $2 million essentially as a tax write-off? "Does this outweigh the potential fine that could have been levied?"

"So this property was listed at $2 million before a respondent ever reached out to the property owner. So that was the market rate."

No, it was not the market rate. It was the asking price. The market rate was set by the Coastal Commission when it approved the $2 million purchase. Many people who live in the area feel that lot is actually worthless, or even a $1 million liability because of the hazardous material that has to be cleared up. Nevertheless, the commission voted 8-0 to accept the deal.

This came after the lawyer for the guy who stole the sand implied to the Coastal Commission that the City of Malibu was actually in favor of the beach donation. Kenneth Ehrlich represents Attanasio.

"Malibu is well aware and has had a conversation with him about the resolution and are not commenting. So the city of Malibu seems perfectly fine and understands the consequences of this, and at least their silence, in my optimistic view, can be categorized as tacit support for it, if not overt support, and just didn't want to comment."

Frankly, the city of Malibu did not comment because it did not know about it. Neither Ehrlich nor the Coastal Commission staff ever gave the city the courtesy of notifying it about the creation of a new state beach 16 miles away from where the sand was stolen.

After that misrepresentation by attorney Kenneth Ehrlich, the Coastal Commission voted 8-0 to approve the purchase of the new pocket beach in the heart of Malibu.