Coastal Commission to vote on Broad Beach penalty deal Play

The California Coastal Commission staff is still unable to disclose where exactly it plans to build a new state park in eastern Malibu, even though the commission is going to vote on this Thursday.

As KBUU has been reporting, the commission is being asked by its staff to assess a penalty against a billionaire who brazenly bulldozed the western end of Broad Beach. Mark Attanasio, the guy who owns the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, sent his crews down onto the public beach to scoop up boulders and sand for his retaining wall above the bluff at the western end of the beach.

The Coastal Commission staff says he is hoping to make amends by coughing up ownership of three beachfront lots way away in eastern Malibu. He's buying these lots for a total of $2 million. The houses burned down, of course, and Attanasio bought these on the cheap, some people say, in eastern Malibu.

The Coastal Commission staff says they've always wanted to create a public beach down there, but they have not said where exactly this particular beach will be created — only somewhere near Big Rock. The pile of public documents released so far does not have the address or even the parcel number, only some pictures taken from the surf line showing a very narrow beach, a series of burned-out wooden poles and a wall that holds up PCH up above.

There is no indication of where people will park at this new beach, no indication of how many bathrooms could possibly be installed there, and no money to pay for development of land which apparently would just be used as a passive place for people to scramble down to the rocks and the surf line.

Some residents of eastern Malibu are pointing out this will be a public safety danger, both with people in the water and people parking along PCH. There are also people who are not happy that the state is being allowed to combine several burned-out lots into one buildable parcel, which they are not allowed to do.

No public comment from anyone at Malibu City Hall, but to be fair, they have their hands full with the developing situation at La Chusa Beach. The Coastal Commission vote on this is Thursday morning.