Commissioners vent frustration over decade-old PCH safety plans Play

If this sounds familiar, it should.

The proposal to accommodate pedestrians at Malibu Seafood, and to ban those left turns at Rambla Pacifico, have been around for 15 years. They've been approved by various city commissions and the city council in past years.

Wednesday night, Malibu residents sitting on the public safety and public works commissions said they're getting frustrated, angry, disappointed. One of them: Wade Major.

"As long as I've been on the public works commission, which is now four — six years now — we have had at least a dozen meetings where we talked about the 2015 safety study," Major said. "And every single time we say 'when are we gonna start getting things done?' I feel like we took a big giant step towards finally getting some things done, so it feels good. But feels long overdue."

Kevin Keegan is the public safety commission chair. He says the city traffic planners have been given firm direction now, both at Malibu Seafood and Las Flores Creek.

"There's some frustration around, no doubt about it. However, we are where we are today," Keegan said. "There is a sense that you could tell from the both commissions that this is an opportunity — we're pushing it forward. We sent the message. Clearly these have been heard. These projects have been hanging around since 2015, where you have evidence of extremely dangerous conditions that have not been addressed. Now is a time to do something."

Wednesday saw 10 members of the public sitting on their commissions making recommendations on these two locations. Everyone with their own opinion. Everyone an expert on PCH — because, after all, they drive on it every day.

Public Safety Commissioner Josh Spiegel is not happy about this. He says there are too many people dickering over details.

"Every time you kick it back, you're wasting staff time, you're wasting the public's time, you're wasting everyone's time," Spiegel said. "But in addition to that, all it does is add cooks to the kitchen. And ultimately what we're looking for is leadership from City Hall. We have a new city manager — great. But we need our city council to step up, make a decision one way or the other, and go with it."

In other City Hall news, the city hall PR team is slapping back against rumors about the new speed cameras being installed this month on PCH.

The city has posted a list of what it calls "myths" it says it is hearing about the cameras, which are going up right now in five locations facing both directions of PCH. The cameras will write automatic tickets that will be mailed out to the owners of cars exceeding the speed limit by 11 miles an hour, with ticket fines increasing as the violation increases.

The city statement says it is not conducting surveillance of the public. It says the cameras are not Flock cameras, and are not recording any license plate numbers unless a car goes by at greater than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit. The system does not use facial recognition. The cameras only take pictures of the rear license plate, and then only when a vehicle is speeding.

And the city is bristling at comments bouncing around the interwebs that it is using the automated speed tickets as a revenue generator. All revenue generated can only go toward covering system costs and PCH safety measures.

The poles and electrical connections are up. The cameras and signage should go up in the next two weeks.